Middens, Construction Fill, and Offerings: Evidence for the Organization of Classic Period Craft Production at Tikal, Guatemala

The Elusive Maya Marketplace: An Archaeological Consideration of the Evidence

“…Keller interprets the obsidian deposit, which included small flakes, broken blades, and one exhausted core, as a location where a skilled flintknapper produced blades for market exchange. In most cases the debris from lithic production in a marketplace would likely have been removed (Aoyama 2005;Moholy-Nagy 1997), but, as with the Xunantunich example, debris could accumulate along a wall or walkway. It also is likely that microdebitage would remain embedded in a plaster floor such as seen at Xochicalco (Hirth 2009b, p. 93; see also Widmer 2009); fine screening during excavation can yield this type of evidence.…”

13 Jade in Full: Prehispanic Domestic Production of Wealth Goods in the Middle Motagua Valley, Guatemala

“…First, contrary to the expectations of some models (e.g. Moholy‐Nagy 1997; Walters 1982), non‐elites were not simply performing the early stages of jade artifact production, but appear to have engaged in the same types of production activities as those carried out at elite sites. Second, non‐elites were producing items that Mayanists would consider more valuable than small jade beads (e.g.…”

Perspectives on ancient Maya bone crafting from a Classic period bone-artifact manufacturing assemblage

“…Considerable controversy exists over the definition of a ''workshop" or center of production as opposed to a ''dump" of remains or a ''problematic deposit" (Moholy- Nagy, 1990Nagy, , 1994Nagy, , 1997 and McAnany pers. comm., 1995).…”

“…These deposits are found strewn across residential occupational surfaces and unassociated with a manufacturing site, and are made up of domestic trash including carbonized seeds and ash, freshwater snails, ceremonial and utilitarian ceramic sherds, debitage from chert biface and bone-artifact production, and unworked human and animal bones (MoholyNagy, 1994, p. 117). Moholy-Nagy (1997) argues that because Maya crafting is generally spatially flexible and the debitage is often removed for disposal, most accumulations of crafting debitage must be considered secondary.…”