Cutting Edge Insights: A Newly Analyzed Ancient Maya Obsidian Assemblage from the Mid-to-Lower Belize River Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Toolstone and Mineral Geography Across Time and Space" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Obsidian was used by the ancient Maya to create tools, weapons, and symbols of status. Archaeologists have analyzed these objects to better understand ancient trade and production systems, as well as socioeconomic and ideological spheres. While obsidian and obsidian sources have been thoroughly examined in many parts of the Maya world, e.g. Honduras, Yucatán, Guatemalan Highlands, and parts of Belize, little has been analyzed in the mid-to-lower reaches of the Belize River Valley. To begin to fill this void, we introduce an obsidian assemblage from the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project. We report on the results of field-based x-ray fluorescence, used to assess obsidian geochemistry and provenience, as well as morphological analyses that have shed light on production and temporal change. In this paper, we describe our findings and develop inferences for understanding the ancient Maya obsidian economy in this segment of the Belize River Valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Toolstone and Mineral Geography Across Time and Space   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52690