No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Compositional analyses have long been used to assign obsidian artifacts to particular source areas. In most cases, the chemical "fingerprint" of a particular source area has been determined through the assay of only a few geological specimens from one or two outcrops. As a result, the full range of intrasource compositional variation has rarely been noted, and its spatial patterning frequently has not been studied. This report describes the results of geoarchaeological survey at the important Guatemalan source area of San Martin Jilotepeque. Neutron activation analysis demonstrates the presence of seven distinct chemical "fingerprints" corresponding to spatially discrete subsources within the region. Ancient procurement and production are associated with only three of these subsources. Statistical procedures that can be used to assign artifacts to particular quarries or quarry systems are presented. Several minor Guatemalan source areas also are examined, and one (Media Cuesta) also can be characterized as consisting of two distinct subsources.Los anailisis de composicion han sido utilizados desde hace mucho tiempo para relacionar los artefactos de obsidiana con yacimientos particulares. En la mayoria de los casos, la huella quimica de una fuente determinada ha sido establecida por andlisis solamente de pocas muestras geol6gicas de uno o dos afloramientos. Como resultado, el rango completo de variabilidad en la composicion dentro de la misma fuente ha sido raramente identificado y los patrones espaciales no han sido estudiados. El presente estudio describe los resultados del reconocimiento geoarqueologico en la importante fuente guatemalteca de San Martin Jilotepeque. El anailisis por activacidn neutronica demuestra la presencia de siete huellas quinzicas distintas, las cuales corresponden a yacimientos secundarios separados espacialmente en la region. La obtencion y la produccion antigua estan asociadas con solamente tres de estos yacimientos secundarios. Presentamos los procedimientos estadisticos que pueden usarse para relacionar artefactos a canteras especificas o a sistemas particulares de canteras. Se examinan tambien algunasfuentes guatemaltecas menores, una de las cuales (Media Cuesta) se caracteriza por contener dos yacimientos secundarios distintos. ince 1990, Ri Rusamdj Jilotepeke (the Jilotepeque Project) has investigated ancient settlement and lithic production patterns in San Martin Jilotepeque (SMJ), department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala (Figure 1). SMJ is the location of an important obsidian source area exploited by the highland Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples from the Paleoindian period to the present day. Three phases of research have been conducted, includi...

Archaeologists working in the northern Maya lowlands have faced persistent problems in establishing chronological precision and accuracy. In particular, it has proven difficult to create multi-phase chronologies for the Late and Terminal Classic periods. Investigators at Xkipche, a small Puuc site southwest of Uxmal, have employed both seriation and the typological approach to ceramic chronology. The results of the ceramic seriation suggest great persistence from the second century until a.d. 1100, a continuity that is not supported by the Type-Variety approach to chronology. This report begins by reviewing the ceramic data, and then turns to another archaeological material, obsidian. Procurement patterns and production technology are discussed for the 182 obsidian artifacts collected during the first five seasons of the Projekt Xkipche. These data are compared with similar information gleaned from other sites in the northern Maya lowlands. Results of this obsidian analysis conflict with the absolute chronology proposed for the Xkipche ceramic sequence. Finally, a compromise ceramic chronology is proposed, one that is consistent with both obsidian and architectural data. This proposed chronology divides the seemingly monolithic Cehpech ceramic complex into three phases: Early Cehpech (a.d. 550-700); Late Cehpech (a.d. 700-900/950); and, Terminal Cehpech/Sotuta (a.d. 900/950-950/1000).