Offense or Defense? Technology and Use of Obsidian Projectile Points at Plan de las Mesas, Honduras

Summary

This is an abstract from the "For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Hundreds of projectile points and point fragments have been recovered over the decades of work at the Classic site of Plan de Las Mesas in the Copan Valley of Western Honduras. Given the ubiquity of these points, which for the most part can be described as atlatl dart components, they may provide important information about the function of the settlement. Metric and technological analyses were carried out to determine the state of Plan de Las Mesas projectiles, including how they were made, where the raw materials came from, and in some cases why they might have been discarded. Of particular interest is the extent to which they were repaired, resharpened, reused, and broken, either through impact or use. While these data cannot confirm whether Las Mesas was primarily a place being attacked (i.e., frequently defending itself) or tooling up for combat (e.g., readying for invasion), the ratio of points “retired” after heavy reuse and resharpening vs those broken on impact and left unmodified may shed light on whether Las Mesas was forced to defend itself in the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53299