Evidence for Slingstones and Related Projectile Stone Use by the Ancient Maya of the Usumacinta River Valley Region

Abstract

In this study, we present evidence for the use of slingstones and other projectile stones among the ancient Maya peoples of the Usumacinta River region. Rounded stones are frequently found across Maya archaeological sites and are given a range of interpretations, including objects for flintknapping, cooking, ritual, divination, and less often as weapons. Here we provide new evidence for the identification of rounded stones as weapons based on their morphology as well as their context of recovery. We employ data from the sites of Macabilero, Guatemala, and Budsilha, Mexico, which strongly suggest rounded stones at these sites were manufactured to be used as weapons. These findings have implications for how we understand warfare and hunting in ancient Mesoamerica and inform our interpretation of how the Maya prepared for such activities. As a class of weapon potentially accessible to most members of Maya society, the results presented here show the importance of more inclusive perspectives on Maya warfare and the necessity of contextualizing artifact analysis within the occupation history of the broader site and region.

Unleashing Maya Warfare: Inquiry Into the Practical Aspects of War-Making

“…It seems probable that research on Maya warfare will maintain a vigorous pace for years to come, as attested by the wealth of volumes and articles published on the subject just in the last three years (e.g., Alcover Firpi and Golden 2020; Chase and Chase 2020; Garrison and Houston 2019; Garrison et al 2019; Helmke 2020; Martin 2020; Morton and Peuramaki-Brown 2019; Navarro-Farr et al 2020; Recinos et al 2021; Serafin 2020; Wahl et al 2019; Woodfill 2019; Wrobel et al 2019). In many publications, however war is treated as a free-floating, reified, abstract category devoid of context or human agency (Nielsen and Walker 2009).…”

Biomechanical Investigation of Ancient Maya Warfare at Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico

“…The latter become particularly common in the Late Postclassic (Escamilla Ojeda, 2004;Masson and Peraza Lope, 2014;Simmons, 2002), yet bows and arrows were rarely rendered in art during any period. Similarly, caches of round stones for throwing or hurling with slings have been recovered in Late Preclassic (300 BC -300 AD) and Late Classic contexts at Usumacinta region sites (Roche Recinos et al, 2021). These weapons are little known from artistic depictions of warfare but are common in ethnohistoric accounts of conflict between Spanish and Maya in the early colonial period.…”

“…Another important yet understudied question is what weapons were used in warfare and how this changed through time (Aoyama, 2005; Roche Recinos et al, 2021; Scherer et al, 2022; Stanton, 2019). Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that tools could have served multiple purposes, which also contributes to the challenge of identifying warriors based on associated grave goods.…”

“…These weapons are little known from artistic depictions of warfare but are common in ethnohistoric accounts of conflict between Spanish and Maya in the early colonial period. Notably, slingstones would have been accessible to a large swath of the populace and required less training compared with other weapons, as may also have been true to some extent for bows and arrows (Hassig, 1992:156; Roche Recinos et al, 2021).…”