The Economic Geography of Chert Lithic Production in the Southern Maya Lowlands: A Comparative Examination of Early-Stage Reduction Debris

Abstract

AbstractIt has been known for several decades that certain regions of the Maya Lowlands were characterized by specialized production of chert tools in ancient times. The extent, intensity, organization, and net social effects of centralized lithic production in the Maya area as a whole, however, are not well understood. In order to address issues of broader relevance to social and economic processes, lithicists working in the Maya region need to develop analytical approaches suited to the study of complex economies. The research presented here attempts to establish simple baseline measures for use in comparing the production of siliceous stone tools, both formal and expedient, at different scales across the Maya area. Scholarship in this region has been chronically plagued by prolonged, unresolved debates—mostly a factor of the multitude of single-site-focused projects employing different methodologies and research emphases. The present study therefore proposes a new direction in Maya lithic studies with the goal of enhancing comparability of data on ancient economic structure through the use of standardized statistics that facilitate spatial analysis. Using the proportion of early-stage core reduction debris to the total of all debitagefrom a given context, for instance, enables the analyst to roughly assess the amount of tool manufacture taking place locally. By extension, inferences can be made about the degree of economic integration and interdependence characterizing any given geographic scale, including the architectural group, site, region, and so on. Preliminary analysis of patterns in early-stage reduction illustrates differential spatial distributions of chert tool production and consumption at several scales from across the southern Lowlands, allowing for the refinement of current models of ancient Maya lithic economy.