The Chains that Grind: An Experimental Archaeological Study Ancient Maya Granite Ground Stone Tool Production

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.

The Rio Frio Regional Archaeological Project recently recorded an extensive network of granitic rock quarry sites associated with an ancient Maya ground stone tool production industry in the Mountain Pine Ridge (MPR), Belize. At the extraction sites, raw material was workshopped into ground stone implements and then distributed throughout Belize and adjacent regions of Guatemala and Mexico. Assemblages at the quarry-workshop sites include vast quantities of waste rock, reduction tools, and discards. Of particular note is the regular appearance of numerous artifacts of unknown function we have labeled as “half-loafs,” presumed to be mano discards. Further, metate discards and preforms are present, but rare. Only a few of these types of sites have ever been recorded archaeologically in Mesoamerica, but none in the Maya area, though they are known there ethnographically. With few sites available for comparison, fundamental questions related to the chain of manufacturing operations and site formation processes remain unanswered. To begin to address those knowledge gaps, we initiated a preliminary experimental archaeology study with material collected from the MPR. In this presentation, we report on our methods and results, revealing what we learned and what questions remain unanswered. We conclude with suggestions for future areas of investigation.

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)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53468