Introduction
From the Preclassic period to the Spanish conquest (Fig. 1), the Maya relied exclusively on lithic (stone) tools for most cutting and blunting activities, from agriculture to crafts, war, sacrificing, and butchering, as well as quarrying and stone carving for architecture. One of the main reasons for this is probably that chert (sedimentary rock) was easily available in the Maya lowlands. In fact, with the exception of a few coastal zones in Yucatan and Quintana Roo (Andrieu, 2009; Hearth & Fedick, 2010), regular-quality chert sources are evenly distributed in the limestone bedrock of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize where most of the Maya cities were located (Fig. 2). Fine-grained chert sources were more localized and sometimes exchanged over hundreds of kilometers. Conversely, in the highlands of Guatemala, chert is scarce, but obsidian, a volcanic glass, was used instead for producing everyday tools and exchanged in the lowlands where it was employed for the production...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Andrieu, C. (2009). Outils mayas, distribution et production du silex et de l’obsidienne dans les Basses Terres. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Université Paris Ouest, Nanterre.
Andrieu, C. (2011). La interpretación económica de los depósitos de lascas. In B. Arroyo, A. Linares Palma, & L. Paiz Aragon (Eds.), XXIV Simposio internacional de arqueología (pp. 321–344). Guatemala: MUNAE.
Andrieu, C. (2013). Classic Maya bifacial production at Rio Bec and Calakmul (Campeche, Mexico). Journal of Field Archaeology, 38(1), 21–37.
Aoyama, K. (2007). Elite artists and craft producers in classic Maya society: Lithic evidence from Aguateca, Guatemala. American Antiquity, 18, 3–26.
Aoyama, K. (2009). Elite craft producers, artists and warriors at Aguateca: Lithic analysis (Monograph of the Aguateca archaeological project first phase, Vol. 2). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Aoyama, K. (2010). Socioeconomic and political implications of regional studies of Maya Lithic artifacts: Two case studies of the Copán Region, Honduras, and the Aguateca Region, Guatemala. In Z. X. Hruby, G. E. Braswell, & O. Chinchilla Mazariegos (Eds.), Technology of the Maya civilization, political economy and beyond in Lithic studies (pp. 37–54). London: Equinox.
Arnauld, M. C. (1990). El comercio clásico de obsidiana, rutas entre Tierras Altas y Tierras Bajas en el área Maya. Latin American Antiquity, 1(4), 347–367.
Barrett, J. W. (2004). Constructing hierarchy through entitlement: Inequality in Lithic resource access among the ancient Maya of Blue Creek, Belize. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, College Station Texas A&M University, Austin, TX.
Barrett, J. W., Shafer, H. J., & Hester, T. R. (2010). Lessons from the field: The contribution of Colha to Lowland Maya Lithic research. In Z. X. Hruby, G. E. Braswell, & O. Chinchilla Mazariegos (Eds.), Technology of the Maya civilization, political economy and beyond in Lithic studies (pp. 15–29). London: Equinox.
Braswell, G. E. (2003). Obsidian exchange sphere. In M. E. Smith & F. F. Berdan (Eds.), The postclassic Mesoamerican world (pp. 131–158). Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.
Braswell, G. E. (2010). The technology of ancient Maya civilization. In Z. X. Hruby, G. E. Braswell, & O. Chinchilla Mazariegos (Eds.), Technology of the Maya civilization, political economy and beyond in Lithic studies (pp. 1–12). London: Equinox.
Braswell, G. E. (2013). Ancient obsidian procurement and production in the Peten Campechano: Uxul and Calakmul during the early classic to terminal classic periods. Indiana, 30, 149–171.
Braswell, G. E., Gunn, J. D., Dominguez Carrasco, M. R., Folan, W. J., Fletcher, L. A., Morales Lopez, A., et al. (2004). Defining the terminal classic at Calakmul. In A. A. Demarest, P. M. Rice, & D. S. Rice (Eds.), The terminal classic in the Maya lowlands, collapse, transition, and transformation (pp. 162–194). Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
Brokmann, C. (2000). Tipología y análisis de la obsidiana de Yaxchilán, Chiapas. Mexico DF: Collección Científica, Serie Arqueología, INAH.
Clark, J. E. (1982). Manufacture of Mesoamerican prismatic blades: An alternative technique. American Antiquity, 42(2), 355–376.
Clark, J. E. (1986). From mountains to Molehills: A critical review of Teotihuacan Obsidian industry. In B. L. Isaac (Ed.), Research in economic anthropology, supplement no. 2 economic aspects of Prehispanic highland Mexico (pp. 23–74). London: Jay Press.
Clark, J. E. (1987). Politics, prismatic blades, and Mesoamerican civilization. In J. K. Johnson & C. A. Morrow (Eds.), The organization of core technology (pp. 259–284). London: Westview Press.
Clark, J. E. (1997). Prismatic blademaking, craftmanship, and production: An analysis of obsidian refuse from Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica, 8, 137–159.
Clark, J. E. (2007). In craft specialization’s penumbra: Things, persons, actions, value, and surplus. In Z. X. Hruby & R. K. Flad (Eds.), Rethinking craft specialization in complex societies: Archaeological analyses of the social meaning of production (Archaeological papers of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 17, pp. 20–36). Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
Coe, W. R. (1959). Piedras Negras archaeology: Artifacts, caches, and burials (Museum monograph). Philadelphia: The University Museum/University of Pennsylvania.
Costin, C. L. (1991). Craft specialization: Issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. In M. B. Schiffer (Ed.), Archaeological method and theory (pp. 1–56). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Costin, C. L. (2007). Thinking about production: Phenomenological classification and lexical semantics. In Z. X. Hruby & R. K. Flad (Eds.), Rethinking craft specialization in complex societies: Archaeological analyses of the social meaning of production (Archaeological papers of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 17, pp. 143–162). Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
Crabtree, D. (1968). Mesoamerican polyhedral cores and prismatic blades. American Antiquity, 33(4), 446–478.
Flenniken, J., & Hirth, K. G. (2003). Handheld prismatic blade manufacture in Mesoamerica. In K. G. Hirth (Ed.), Mesoamerican Lithic technology, experimentation and interpretation (pp. 98–107). Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.
Fowler, W. (1991). Lithic analysis as a mean of processual inference in Southern Mesoamerica: A review of recent research. In T. R. Hester & H. J. Shafer (Eds.), Maya stone tools, selected papers from the second Maya Lithic conference (Monograph in world archaeology, Vol. 1, pp. 1–19). Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.
Golitko, M., Meierhoff, J., Feinman, G., & Williams, P. R. (2012). Complexities of collapse: The evidence of Maya obsidian as revealed by social network graphical analysis. Antiquity, 86, 507–523.
Hearth, N. F., & Fedick, S. L. (2010). Defining the chert paucity problem in the Northern Maya Lowlands: A first approximation. In Z. X. Hruby, G. E. Braswell, & O. Chinchilla Mazariegos (Eds.), Technology of the Maya civilization, political economy and beyond in Lithic studies (pp. 69–75). London: Equinox.
Hester, T. R. (1982). The Maya Lithic sequence in Northern Belize. In T. R. Hester, H. J. Schafer, & J. Eaton (Eds.), Archaeology at Colha, Belize: The 1981 interim report (pp. 39–59). San Antonio, TX: Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Hester, T. R., & Shafer, H. J. (1984). Exploitation of chert resources by the ancient Maya of Northern Belize, Central America. World Archaeology, 16(2), 157–173.
Hirth, K. G. (2003). The Kaminaljuyu production sequence for obsidian prismatic blades, technological characteristics and research questions. In K. G. Hirth (Ed.), Mesoamerican Lithic technology, experimentation and interpretation (pp. 170–181). Salt Lake City, UT: University of UTAH Press.
Hirth, K. G. (2008). The economy of supply: Modeling obsidian procurement and craft provisioning at a Central Mexican Urban Center. Latin American Antiquity, 19, 435–457.
Hirth, K. G., & Flenniken, J. J. (2002). Core-Blade technology in Mesoamerican prehistory. In K. G. Hirth & B. Andrew (Eds.), Pathway to prismatic blades: A study in Mesoamerican obsidian core blade technology (pp. 121–129). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 45, University of California.
Hruby, Z. X. (2006). The organization of chipped stone economies at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Riverside, CA.
Hruby, Z. X. (2007). Ritualized chipped-stone production at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. In Z. X. Hruby & R. K. Flad (Eds.), Rethinking craft specialization in complex societies: Archaeological analyses of the social meaning of production (Archaeological papers of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 17, pp. 68–87). Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
Hruby, Z., & Araki, S. (2004). Técnicas de Reducción de Núcleos poliédricos en Piedras Negras, Guatemala. In J. P. Laporte & H. L. Escobedo (Eds.), XVIII Simposio de investigación arqueológica en Guatemala (pp. 713–719). Guatemala: MUNAE.
Iannone, G. J. (1992). Ancient Maya eccentric Lithics: A contextual analysis. Unpublished MA thesis, Trent University, Peterborough, ON.
Kidder, A. V. (1947). The artifacts of Uaxactun, Guatemala (Publication No. 576). Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Lewenstein, S. M. (1987). Stone tool use at Cerros, Belize. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Lewis, B. S. (2003). Environmental heterogeneity and occupational specialization. An examination of the Lithic tool production in the three rivers region of the Northeastern Peten. In V. L. Scarborough, F. Valdez Jr., & N. Dunning (Eds.), Heterarchy, political economy, and the ancient Maya. The three rivers region of the East-Central Yucatan Peninsula (pp. 122–135). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Masson, M. A. (2001). The economic organization of late and terminal classic period Maya stone tool craft specialist workshops at Colha, Belize. Lithic Technology, 26, 29–49.
Masson, M. A., & Freidel, D. (2013). Wide open spaces: A long view of the importance of Maya market exchange. In K. Hirth (Ed.), Merchants, trade and exchange in the pre-Columbian world (pp. 201–228). Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library.
McAnany, P. A. (1989). Economic foundations of prehistoric Maya society: Paradigms and concepts. Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement, 4, 347–372.
McAnany, P. A. (1991). Structure and dynamics of intercommunity exchange. In T. R. Hester & H. J. Shafer (Eds.), Maya stone tools: Selected papers from the second Maya Lithic conference (Monograph in world archaeology, Vol. 1, pp. 271–293). Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.
McAnany, P. A. (1992). Agricultural tasks and tools: Patterns of stone tool discard near prehistoric Maya residences bordering Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize. In T. W. Killion (Ed.), Gardens of prehistory: The archaeology of settlement agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica (pp. 184–213). Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
McAnany, P. A. (1993). Resources, specialization, and exchange in the Maya Lowlands. In J. E. Ericson & T. G. Baugh (Eds.), The American Southwest and Mesoamerica: Systems of prehistoric exchange (pp. 213–246). New York: Plenum Press.
McAnany, P. A. (2010). Ancestral Maya economies in archaeological perspective. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
McAnany, P. A., & Peterson, P. (2004). Tools of the trade: Acquisition, use, and recycling of chipped stone. In P. McAnany (Ed.), K’axob: Ritual, work, and family in an ancient Maya village (Monumenta archaeologia, Vol. 22, pp. 279–305). Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.
Meadow, R. K. (2000). Archaeological excavations at group H: Investigating craft production and domestic architecture at Chan Chich, Belize. In B. A. Houk (Ed.), The 1998 and 1999 seasons of the Chan Chich archaeological project (Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, Vol. 4, pp. 15–40). Austin, TX: Mesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas.
Meadows, R. (2001). Crafting K’awil: A comparative analysis of ancient Maya symbolic Lithics from three sites in Northern Belize. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, TX.
Michels, J. W. (1979). The Kaminaljuyu chiefdom. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Moholy-Nagy, H. (1990). The misidentification of Mesoamerican Lithic workshops. Latin American Antiquity, 1, 268–279.
Moholy-Nagy, H. (1997). Middens, construction fill, and offerings: Evidence for the organization of classic period craft production at Tikal, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology, 24, 293–313.
Moholy-Nagy, H. (2003a). The artifacts of Tikal: Utilitarian artifacts and unworked material (Tikal Report No. 27, Part B). Philadelphia: University Museum Monograph/University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Moholy-Nagy, H. (2003b). Source attribution and the utilization of obsidian in the Maya area. Latin American Antiquity, 14(3), 301–310.
Moholy-Nagy, H. (2008). The artifacts of Tikal-ornamental and ceremonial artifacts and unworked material (Tikal Report No. 27, Part A). Philadelphia: University Museum Monograph/University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Moholy-Nagy, H., Meierhoff, J., Golitko, M., & Kestle, C. (2013). An analysis if pXRF obsidian source attributions from Tikal, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity, 24(1), 72–97.
Neivens, M., & Libbey, D. (1976). An obsidian workshop at El Pozito, Northern Belize. In T. R. Hester, & N. Hammond (Eds.), Maya Lithic studies: Papers from the 1976 Belize field symposium (Special Report No. 4, pp. 137–150). San Antonio, TX: Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas at San Antonio.
Nelson, F. W. (1985). Summary of the results of analysis of obsidian artifacts from the Maya Lowlands. Scanning Electron Microscopy, 2, 631–649.
Pendergast, D. M. (2003). Teotihuacan at altun ha: Did it make a difference? In G. E. Braswell (Ed.), The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting early classic interaction (pp. 235–247). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Potter, D. R. (1993). Analytical approaches to late classic Maya Lithic industries. In J. A. Sabloff & J. S. Henderson (Eds.), Lowland Maya civilization in the eight century A.D. (pp. 273–298). Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library.
Potter, D. R., & King, E. (1995). A heterarchical approach to Lowland Maya socioeconomics. In R. M. Ehrenreich, C. L. Crumley, & J. E. Levy (Eds.), Heterarchy and the analysis of complex societies (Archaeological papers of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 6, pp. 17–32). Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
Rice, P. M. (2009). Late classic Maya pottery production: Review and synthesis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 16, 117–156.
Rovner, I. (1974). Evidence for a secondary workshop at Mayapan, Yucatan. Newsletter of Lithic Technology, III(2), 19–27.
Rovner, I., & Lewenstein, S. (1997). Maya stone tools of Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan, and Becan and Chicanna, Campeche (Middle American Research Institute Monograph No. 65). New Orleans, LA: Tulane University.
Schortman, E. M., & Urban, P. A. (2004). Modeling the roles of craft production in ancient political economies. Journal of Archaeological Research, 12, 185–226.
Shafer, H. J. (1991). Late preclassic formal stone tool production at Colha, Belize. In T. R. Hester & H. J. Shafer (Eds.), Maya stone tools, selected papers from the second Maya Lithic conference (Monograph in world archaeology, Vol. 1, pp. 31–44). Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.
Shafer, H. J., & Hester, T. R. (1983). Ancient Maya chert workshops in Northern Belize, Central America. American Antiquity, 48, 519–543.
Shafer, H. J., & Hester, T. R. (1991). Lithic craft specialisation and product distribution at the Maya site of Colha, Belize. World Archaeology, 23(1), 79–97.
Sheets, P. D. (2000). Provisioning the Ceren household, the vertical economy, village economy, and household economy in the southeastern Maya periphery. Ancient Mesoamerica, 11(2), 217–230.
Speal, S. C. (2009). Economic geography of chert Lithic production in the Southern Maya Lowlands: A comparative examination of early stage reduction debris. Latin American Antiquity, 20, 91–119.
Titmus, L. G., & Clark, J. E. (2003). Mexica blade making with wooden tools: Recent experimental insights. In K. G. Hirth (Ed.), Mesoamerican Lithic technology, experimentation and interpretation (pp. 72–97). Salt Lake City, UT: University of UTAH Press.
Titmus, L. G., & Woods, J. C. (2003). The Maya eccentric, evidence for the use of the indirect percussion technique in Mesoamerica from preliminary experiments concerning their manufacture. In K. G. Hirth (Ed.), Mesoamerican Lithic technology, experimentation and interpretation (pp. 132–152). Salt Lake City, UT: University of UTAH Press.
Tolstoy, P. (1971). Utilitarian artifacts of Central Mexico. In F. Ekholm & I. Bernal (Eds.), Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, part I (Vol. 10, pp. 270–296). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Trachman, R. M., & Titmus, G. L. (2003). Pecked and scored initiations, early classic core-blade production in the Central Maya Lowlands. In K. G. Hirth (Ed.), Mesoamerican Lithic technology, experimentation and interpretation (pp. 108–119). Salt Lake City, UT: University of UTAH Press.
Whittaker, J. C., Kamp, K. A., Ford, A., Guerra, R., Brands, P., Guerra, J., et al. (2009). Lithic industry in a Maya Center: An axe workshop at El Pilar, Belize. Latin American Antiquity, 20, 134–156.
Willey, G. R. (1972). The artifact of Altar De Sacrificios (Papers of the Peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 64, No. 1). Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum.
Willey, G. R. (1978). Excavation at Seibal: Artifacts (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology No. 1. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum.
Willey, G. R., Bullard, W. R., Jr., Glass, J. B., & Gifford, J. (1965). Prehistoric Maya settlements in the Belize valley (Paper of the Peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology). Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum.
Woodfill, B., & Andrieu, C. (2012). Tikal’s early classic domination of the great western trade route: Ceramic, Lithic, and iconographic evidence. Ancient Mesoamerica, 23(2), 189–209.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Andrieu, C. (2014). Maya Lithic Production. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9950-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9950-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-3934-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Maya Lithic Production- Published:
- 04 October 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9950-2
-
Original
Maya Lithic Production- Published:
- 02 July 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9950-1