Reducing Risk: Maya Lithic Production and Economic Diversification at Callar Creek Quarry, Belize

Abstract

The role of craft producers in past economies provides information that helps contextualize the role of economies in broader sociopolitical systems. Through this examination of lowland Maya lithic producers in the Late to Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–890), this article explores the centrality of economic activities in integrating craft producers into larger regional political communities and simultaneously buffering them against regional political conflicts. Through a study of lithic extraction and production at Callar Creek Quarry, Belize, this article examines the relevance of crafting activities in the minimization of economic uncertainty. These data indicate that lithic reduction served to diversify economic activities for lithic producers, and thus minimized economic risk. The use of economic activity to minimize risk provides evidence for the continuity of small-scale householders. This illustrates the independence of economic activities from political frameworks, and suggests that economic diversification serves as a critical stabilizing force for rural Classic-period Maya residents.

Valuing the ubiquitous: Resource availability and landscape value among the Classic period Maya of western Belize

“…The part‐time lithic production activity suggests that lithic production was an additional economic activity, probably a mechanism for economic diversification (see Hirth 2009a, 2020). The nature of part‐time production at the quarry is discussed elsewhere (Horowitz 2021), but further discussion is beyond the scope of this article. The production scale fits within broader trends of part‐time craft production as the dominant production type in Mesoamerica (e.g., Feinman 2018; Healan 2009; Hirth 2009a).…”

“…Recent studies illustrate that the value of goods changed depending on the type of good, the exchange mechanisms utilized, regional resource availability, and other factors (e.g., Masson, Freidel, and Demarest 2020). Studies of lithic economies highlight the importance of access to utilitarian tools and the variety of mechanisms through which those tools can be obtained (e.g., Cap 2015; Horowitz 2021; Masson, Freidel, and Demarest 2020). Given the importance of these implements in daily life, access to and management of chert raw material sources have important implications for understanding broader patterns in past economic activities.…”

“…While occupation at the quarry spans from the Preclassic period (∼1000 BCE) through the Historic period, this discussion focuses on the Late/Terminal Classic period occupation (600–900 CE). Artifacts discussed stem only from stratigraphic contexts of known Late/Terminal Classic period occupation identified through temporally diagnostic ceramics (see Horowitz 2017, 2021).…”

Lithics in the Maya Region: Exploring Gendered Trends in Research in the Last Decade

“…In northern Belize, Barrett (2011) identified elite management of chert resources. In western Belize, studies find decentralized access, with local producers managing chert extraction (Horowitz 2018(Horowitz , 2021(Horowitz , 2022; in the Peten, the presence of chert in pockets within the limestone bedrock makes it unlikely that resource extraction was managed (Hansen 2016:355;Kwoka 2014). Similar patterns are visible in obsidian extraction as the geographic extent of sources makes them difficult to manage (e.g., Alvarado Hernandez 2016).…”