Lithic Industry in a Maya Center: An Axe Workshop at El Pilar, Belize

Abstract

Cahal Tok (Place of Flint) is a limestone rise with some structural evidence, associated with the previously designated LDF Chert Site, close to the ceremonial center of El Pilar. Excavations uncovered evidence that during the Late Classic period, specialized flintknappers produced bifaces, primarily chert axes, at the Cahol Tok locus, first on a cleared limestone shelf then on a prepared cobble platform. Small flakes remained in situ whereas much of the larger debris was deposited to the east off the edge of the platform and into the LDF debitage dump. The identification of a specialized manufacturing locale near the ceremonial precinct of a major center is unusual in Maya archaeology. Central control of an important industry may be implied, although knapping could equally well be organized more independently. We expect that small industrial areas are actually present at most large sites, but may often be difficult to recognize.

The Elusive Maya Marketplace: An Archaeological Consideration of the Evidence

“…Tools of Colha chert were included in coastal trade and have been found on Moho Cay (McKillop 2004) and Ambergris Caye (Hult and Hester 1995); they also have been identified at inland sites as far away as Tikal (Potter 1993, p. 286). Although the Colha workshops are notable in their size, chert workshops or ''production locales'' are found at sites across the lowlands, serving the needs of their immediate regions (e.g., Barrett 2004Barrett , 2006Black 1987;Cackler et al 1999;Chase and Chase 2004, p. 119;Whittaker et al 2009). …”

Estimating the scale of stone axe production: A case study from Onega Lake, Russian Karelia

“…Maya lithic workshops in America contain some hundreds of thousands or even millions of waste flakes bigger than 3 mm per 1 m 3 (Shafer & Hester 1991;Whittaker et al 2009). Similarly large volumes of waste flakes per cubic meter were encountered in some adze and axe making workshops in New Guinea (Bickler & Turner 2002).…”

“…Usually these studies deal with quite late industries, beginning since the Neolithic, and with situations that allow suspecting some sort of specialized and "mass-production". They aim at confirming, correcting or disproving these claims (Le Roux 1979;Torrence 1984;Shafer & Hester 1986;1991;Mallory 1986;Sundström & Apel 1998;Sundström 2003: 258-259;Petrequin et al 1998;Pelegrin 2002;Whittaker et al 2009;Barzilai 2010: 16-19). Most of them in one way or another use technological assessment of the corresponding technology, usually supplemented by controlled experiments.…”

“…Le Roux (1979) estimates the amount of tools produced in an area basing on the volume of an average axe. The other approach mainly considers the amount of waste flakes that can be produced by manufacturing an average axe, and pays close attention to peculiarities of concrete technologies (Shafer & Hester 1986, 1991Sundström & Apel 1998;Sundström 2003: 258-259;Whittaker et al 2009). Experimental replication can be of great help for understanding these peculiarities.…”

“…40000 m 2 . Rules of conducting archaeological fieldworks in Russian Federation do not allow excavating numerous tiny patches of the cultural layer as it was done in some projects already referenced here (Shafer & Hester 1991;Whittaker et al 2009), while organizing excavations of another 20-30 m 2 providing, probably, comparably enormous amount of artefacts, is impossible for us at this moment. However, our estimation will definitely help to develop some imagination about the whole workshop.…”