Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:05:52.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Provenience Analysis of Obsidians from the Central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Prudence M. Rice
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611
Helen V. Michel
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, under DOEcontract #DE-ACO 3-76SF 00098
Frank Asaro
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, under DOEcontract #DE-ACO 3-76SF 00098
Fred Stross
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, under DOEcontract #DE-ACO 3-76SF 00098

Abstract

A set of 296 obsidian artifacts from the lakes area of the Department of Peten, Guatemala, has been provenienced by X-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analysis. The obsidians come from socioeconomic contexts (primarily rural/domestic) and time periods—from the Middle Preclassic period, ca. 800 B.C., up to the time of Spanish contact, A.D. 1525—that have been poorly represented in previous Lowland provenience studies. Thus they provide new data on the acquisition and distribution of this important non-local commodity in the Maya Lowlands.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Aldenderfer, Mark S. 1982 The Structure of Domestic Lithic Assemblages in the Late Classic and Postclassic of the Central Peten Lakes Region. Paper presented at the Ilnd Maya Lithics Conference, San Antonio.Google Scholar
Aldenderfer, Mark S. 1984 The Structure of Rural Lithic Assemblages of the Late Classic in the Central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala. In Stone Tools and Maya Civilization, edited by Hester, Thomas and Shafer, Harry J., volume in preparation.Google Scholar
Asaro, Frank, Michel, Helen V., Sidrys, Raymond, and Stross, Fred 1978 High Precision Chemical Characterization of Major Obsidian Sources in Guatemala. American Antiquity 43 : 436443.Google Scholar
Baxter, Kevin 1984 Obsidian Source Analysis and the Economy of Tipu, Belize. Paper presented at the XXIInd annual meeting of the Northeastern Anthropological Association, Hartford.Google Scholar
Deevey, Edward S., Jr., Rice, Don S., Rice, Prudence M., Vaughan, Hague H., Brenner, Mark, and Flannery Michael, S. 1979 Mayan Urbanism : Impact on a Tropical Karst Environment. Science 206 : 298306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammond, Norman 1972 Obsidian Trade Routes in the Mayan Area. Science 178 : 10921093.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1983 Lowland Maya Archaeology at the Crossroads. American Antiquity 48 : 454488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula 1975 Obsidian at Tikal, Guatemala. Adas del XLI° Congreso International de Americanistas 1 : 511518.Google Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula, Asaro, Frank, and Stross, Fred 1984 Tikal Obsidian : Sources and Artifacts. American Antiquity 49 : 104117.Google Scholar
Obsidian Exchange Networks in the Maya Lowlands. In Models for Production and Exchange in Mesoamerica, edited by H. Charlton, Thomas. University of Utah Press, Provo, in press.Google Scholar
Nelson, Fred, Sidrys, Raymond, and Holmes, R. D. 1978 Trace Element Analysis by X-ray Fluorescence of Obsidian Artifacts from Guatemala and Belize. In Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala. Artifacts, edited by R. Willey, Gordon, pp. 153161. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 14, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Perlman, I., and Asaro, Frank 1969 Pottery Analysis by Neutron Activation. Archaeometry 11 : 2152.Google Scholar
Perlman, I., and Asaro, Frank 1971 Pottery Analysis by Neutron Activation. In Science and Archaeology, edited by Brill, R. H., pp. 182195. M. I. T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Rice, Don S. 1976 The Historical Ecology of Lakes Yaxha and Sacnab, El Peten, Guatemala. Ph. D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Rice, Don S. 1982 The Peten Postclassic : A Settlement Perspective. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization : Classic to Postclassic, edited by A. Sabloffand, Jeremy Andrews, E. Wyllys V. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, in press.Google Scholar
Rice, Don S., and Rice, Prudence M. 1980 The Northeast Peten Revisited. American Antiquity 45 : 432445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, Don S., and Rice, Prudence M. 1984 Lessons from the Maya. Latin American Research Review 19 : 734.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1982 The Peten Postclassic : Perspectives from the Central Peten Lakes. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization : Classic to Postclassic, edited by A. Sabloff, Jeremy and Andrews, E. Wyllys V. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, in press.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1983 Economic Change in the Lowland Maya Late Classic Period. In Production, Exchange and Complex Societies, edited by Brumfiel, Elizabeth and Earle, Timothy, volume in preparation.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1984 Obsidian Procurement in the Central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 11 : 181194.Google Scholar
Sidrys, Raymond, and Kimberlin, Jerome 1979 Use of Mayan Obsidian Sources Through Time : Trace Element Data from El Balsamo, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 6 : 116122.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J., and Gifford, James 1970 Preclassic Ceramics from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, and Their Relationships with the Maya Lowlands. American Antiquity 35 : 441462.Google Scholar
Stross, Fred, Sheets, Payson D., Asaro, Frank, and Michel, Helen V. 1983 Precise Characterization of Guatemalan Obsidian Sources, and Source Determination of Artifacts from Guatemala. American Antiquity 48 : 323346.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Robert N., and Heimbuch, R. C. 1978 Trace Element Analysis and the Archaeological Study of Obsidian Procurement in Precolumbian Mesoamerica. In Lithics and Subsistence— The Analysis of Stone Tools Use in Prehistoric Economics, edited by Davis, D., pp. 117159. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology no. 20, Nashville.Google Scholar