At the confluence of local and regional: Domestic lithic use from Altar de Sacrificios and its surrounding region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Repositioning Altar de Sacrificios on the Ancient Maya Landscape" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Flaked and ground stone from ancient Maya domestic contexts continue to offer fundamental insights into domestic activities. Additionally, geological attributes of lithic materials generally afford the analysis of regional trade by contrasting local versus regionally accessible materials. Applying classification criteria used by the Peabody Museum project, the recent analysis of new materials excavated by the Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios cataloged more than 5,500 lithic artifacts, the bulk of which are made of locally available chert. This high-quality local chert was used to make large adzes and points, as well as small drills for crafting. Despite the high percentage of local chert, other locally available tool stone types are present suggesting a diversity of tool stone choices to enable innovative strategies for domestic work. Regional exchange is evident in the 1,500 obsidian artifacts recovered from domestic contexts and offer insights into local access and use of non-local materials. The flaked and ground stone assemblages from Altar are an impressive example of what we can recover from the investigation of household contexts. The data reinforces existing information gathered by previous studies and the area in general but allow the discussion to center on domestic spaces and practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Repositioning Altar de Sacrificios on the Ancient Maya Landscape   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50201