The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras, Guatemala by Zachary Xavier Hruby Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Anthropology University of California, Riverside, March 2006 Dr. Karl A. Taube, Chairperson The study examines patterns of chipped-stone production, distribution, and consumption during the Late Classic period at Piedras Negras, a medium-sized Maya polity located in the Middle Usumacinta region of the western Petén. The city center had a rich lithic tradition that crosscut spatial and temporal status boundaries. Most chipped stone goods made of obsidian and microcrystalline quartz were used in utilitarian capacities, but some were important in royal rituals, especially “eccentrics” (likely a type of god effigy), which were cached in temple and stela dedication contexts. This study is the first large-scale analysis of chipped-stone artifacts from this region, and one of the few carried out at a major Maya center that featured the full complement of Classic Maya culture traits: hieroglyphic history, royal palaces, the stela altar complex, and temple burials. Quantitative and qualitative data on technology, material type, use-wear, and in some cases, symbolism, were collected from nearly 10,000 chert and obsidian artifacts. vi
The sample was comprised of artifacts collected from the recent Piedras Negras Archaeological Project excavations and also the University of Pennsylvania excavations of the 1930s. Replication experiments were conducted to reproduce the local manufacturing traditions, and these data were used in the technological and symbolic aspects of the analysis. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric examples of ritualized production provided possible analogues for Classic Maya lithic traditions. Drawing from a combination of practice and economic theory, one of the main goals of the study was to examine the social role of craft production and craft producers in ancient Maya society. In particular, ideologies of production and the practice of ritualized production were theorized as important elements of the production and exchange of material capital, and the creation of symbolic capital. It was found that the system of production and exchange was inherently tied to symbolic and material capital, which had the effect of creating solidarity, at times, within the community through the ritual deposition of goods made by a number of experienced hands throughout the city center. The royal family at Piedras Negras attempted to control some forms of chipped-stone production, particularly obsidian and microcrystalline-quartz eccentrics used in royal rituals. vii
Page 1 and 2: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
Page 4 and 5: Acknowledgements Foremost, I thank
Page 8 and 9: TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES
Page 10 and 11: 5.4.1.1.5: Large laurel leaf biface
Page 12 and 13: 7.2.1: Hypothesis 1……………
Page 14 and 15: 6.2: Examples of possible pressure-
Page 16 and 17: LIST OF TABLES Chapter 4: Lithic Re
Page 18 and 19: the royal palace had more access to
Page 20 and 21: argued that most studies intended t
Page 22 and 23: The research presented here submits
Page 24 and 25: flakes of microcrystalline quartz,
Page 26 and 27: whereby data were recorded. The hyp
Page 28 and 29: ecause the debate actually concerns
Page 30 and 31: “technological-resource realm”
Page 32 and 33: and another chert production locale
Page 34 and 35: activities may in turn have given r
Page 36 and 37: Most of these studies are somewhat
Page 38 and 39: consequence of this perspective is
Page 40 and 41: study is but one more building bloc
Page 42 and 43: avoids the problem of how to charac
Page 44 and 45: and probably did, have multiple occ
Page 46 and 47: for them, but also the status of wh
Page 48 and 49: which represents nondiscursive prac
Page 50 and 51: ideology, hegemony, and similar con
Page 52 and 53: can overlap through religious and s
Page 54 and 55: the codification of belief implies
Page 56 and 57:
[A] relatively autonomous and struc
Page 58 and 59:
materialize” (2000:140; my emphas
Page 60 and 61:
itualized production should not be
Page 62 and 63:
commonplace (cf. Childs 1998). Ritu
Page 64 and 65:
[R]ituals employed during manufactu
Page 66 and 67:
Another Aztec example indicates tha
Page 68 and 69:
period documents, charters other fo
Page 70 and 71:
Although this passage describes a s
Page 72 and 73:
materials, such as the central Pet
Page 74 and 75:
emergent craft ideologies, and an o
Page 76 and 77:
not to say that production, even ri
Page 78 and 79:
Pennsylvania that yielded an import
Page 80 and 81:
information from new excavations is
Page 82 and 83:
interpretation, are mentioned on Ea
Page 84 and 85:
e interpreted as being structurally
Page 86 and 87:
of his father, if we can consider t
Page 88 and 89:
Figure 3.1: Teotihuacan-style mount
Page 90 and 91:
Figure 3.3: Column altar Cache R-5-
Page 92 and 93:
the city. Since the ceramic chronol
Page 94 and 95:
some residential groups feature mor
Page 96 and 97:
from the seat of power by many diff
Page 98 and 99:
microcrystalline quartzes were rese
Page 100 and 101:
eceived these scores from moderate
Page 102 and 103:
Figure 3.4: Two examples of hammers
Page 104 and 105:
used, they probably had a lesser ex
Page 106 and 107:
typology chapters of this study, bu
Page 108 and 109:
degree to which lithic production w
Page 110 and 111:
Furthermore, general patterns of pr
Page 112 and 113:
previously (see Chapter 5). A typol
Page 114 and 115:
and between nodules, which were sel
Page 116 and 117:
of these materials are nodular flin
Page 118 and 119:
eduction flakes found at the site (
Page 120 and 121:
104
Page 122 and 123:
Table 4.1 depicts the percentages b
Page 124 and 125:
Table 4.2 depicts microcrystalline-
Page 126 and 127:
from Ixtepeque, the opaque black co
Page 128 and 129:
Table 4.3: Counts and percentages o
Page 130 and 131:
Table 4.4: The total counts and wei
Page 132 and 133:
Table 4.5 continued. 116
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
122
Page 140 and 141:
According to the three spatial grou
Page 142 and 143:
4.2.2: Color and Quality of El Chay
Page 144 and 145:
128
Page 146 and 147:
quartz eccentrics from the two site
Page 148 and 149:
systematic sourcing program for mic
Page 150 and 151:
technological typology that focuses
Page 152 and 153:
establishing chronologies, and also
Page 154 and 155:
Aside from these speculative accoun
Page 156 and 157:
combination of morphological and te
Page 158 and 159:
Shafer and Hester (1983) also creat
Page 160 and 161:
(in Rovner and Lewenstein 1997:23),
Page 162 and 163:
primary technological trait, such a
Page 164 and 165:
#1-Large Celt Biface, Thin Kidder 1
Page 166 and 167:
#7-Large, Stemmed Biface Hester 198
Page 168 and 169:
#20-Medium Circular Biface Rectangu
Page 170 and 171:
#30-Small Stemmed Biface Ricketson
Page 172 and 173:
typological variation also may stem
Page 174 and 175:
This form is thoroughly described i
Page 176 and 177:
Figure 5.3.2: Examples of thick cel
Page 178 and 179:
Figure 5.4: A celtiform-biface frag
Page 180 and 181:
describes the technology and morpho
Page 182 and 183:
The working bit is produced by a si
Page 184 and 185:
5.4.1.1.7: Large stemmed biface (se
Page 186 and 187:
5.4.1.2: Medium-sized artifacts (8
Page 188 and 189:
ased on proximal or medial fragment
Page 190 and 191:
Figure 5.7: Medium-sized oval unifa
Page 192 and 193:
medium-sized, laurel leaf unifaces
Page 194 and 195:
leaf bifaces, which also can be par
Page 196 and 197:
surface of a nodule reduction flake
Page 198 and 199:
in some cases, be thoroughly chippe
Page 200 and 201:
core such as is used in the Middle
Page 202 and 203:
The small stemmed biface type also
Page 204 and 205:
domestic archaeological record at P
Page 206 and 207:
and northern Belize regions. During
Page 208 and 209:
Figure 5.9: Microcrystalline-quartz
Page 210 and 211:
Figure 5.10: Unifacially-worked lau
Page 212 and 213:
they had the same meaning and value
Page 214 and 215:
At Piedras Negras biface-reduction
Page 216 and 217:
The goal of reduction would be to p
Page 218 and 219:
5.6.3: Notching Flakes: Indirect Pe
Page 220 and 221:
Figure 5.13: Evidence for the reduc
Page 222 and 223:
5.6.7: Resharpening, Rejuvenation,
Page 224 and 225:
CHAPTER 6 TYPOLOGY OF OBSIDIAN ARTI
Page 226 and 227:
Figure 6.1: Exhausted obsidian blad
Page 228 and 229:
Exhausted cylindrical cores are fou
Page 230 and 231:
Figure 6.2: Examples of possible pr
Page 232 and 233:
216
Page 234 and 235:
face of the core. Clark and Bryant
Page 236 and 237:
Figure 6.5: Percussion flakes remov
Page 238 and 239:
Figure 6.7: Distal rejuvenation bla
Page 240 and 241:
section, and then were prepared and
Page 242 and 243:
Figure 6.9: Obsidian eccentrics tha
Page 244 and 245:
Figure 6.11: Second-series pressure
Page 246 and 247:
lade-core platforms at Piedras Negr
Page 248 and 249:
Figure 6.13.1: Platform rejuvenatio
Page 250 and 251:
termination was used as a platform
Page 252 and 253:
Figure 6.16: Crested blade from Pie
Page 254 and 255:
Figure 6.18: Distal rejuvenation fl
Page 256 and 257:
this technique is on transforming t
Page 258 and 259:
6.3.2: Some Implications of Single-
Page 260 and 261:
differentiation in others. This is
Page 262 and 263:
Figure 6.22: Cores notched by press
Page 264 and 265:
Figure 6.24: Completely-bifaced fla
Page 266 and 267:
specific types of debitage, only re
Page 268 and 269:
for cylindrical cores. The edges of
Page 270 and 271:
The debitage from the production of
Page 272 and 273:
is understood to be the site core.
Page 274 and 275:
Figure 7.2: Map of the acropolis at
Page 276 and 277:
Figure 7.3: Map of Piedras Negras d
Page 278 and 279:
inhabited up to the Kumche phase, a
Page 280 and 281:
264
Page 282 and 283:
area of the city. PN23 also appears
Page 284 and 285:
The third and final spatial groupin
Page 286 and 287:
270
Page 288 and 289:
historical connection to previous i
Page 290 and 291:
any other residential group at Pied
Page 292 and 293:
Phase Cutting Edge to Mass Ratio Av
Page 294 and 295:
An analysis of CE:M ratios and blad
Page 296 and 297:
Site Op Phase Artifact Type Modific
Page 298 and 299:
number of different ways. According
Page 300 and 301:
It is true, however, that the major
Page 302 and 303:
Site Operation Phase Area Non- prod
Page 304 and 305:
Obsidian-Eccentric Types Yaxche Cha
Page 306 and 307:
obsidian eccentrics, a likely scena
Page 308 and 309:
debitage had a symbolic and economi
Page 310 and 311:
anywhere from one to twenty years a
Page 312 and 313:
Figure 7.11: Column altar Cache R-5
Page 314 and 315:
etween the two samples of obsidian
Page 316 and 317:
indicates they may have been associ
Page 318 and 319:
Figure 7.15: Obsidian eccentrics in
Page 320 and 321:
304
Page 322 and 323:
although in a diminished quantity,
Page 324 and 325:
anthropomorphized or characterized
Page 326 and 327:
circumscribed, especially consideri
Page 328 and 329:
Figures 7.20: Obsidian biface eccen
Page 330 and 331:
as a potpourri of symbols and reduc
Page 332 and 333:
continued, although in a minor way
Page 334 and 335:
Figure 7.24: Refit of flake and bif
Page 336 and 337:
tomb (Burial 10) and the tomb of Ru
Page 338 and 339:
ut some of them (N=34) were late-st
Page 340 and 341:
8.1: SUMMARY OF TEST RESULTS CHAPTE
Page 342 and 343:
obsidian technologies differed from
Page 344 and 345:
organization at the end of the Yaxc
Page 346 and 347:
The symbolic nature of chipped-ston
Page 348 and 349:
previously unrecognized patterns of
Page 350 and 351:
conversion of symbolic capital may
Page 352 and 353:
cache name contains the name of the
Page 354 and 355:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldenderfer, Mark S. 1
Page 356 and 357:
Child, Mark B. 1997 PN 18: Excavaci
Page 358 and 359:
Comaroff, Jean, and John Comaroff 1
Page 360 and 361:
Fedick, Scott 1991 Chert Tool Produ
Page 362 and 363:
Golden, Charles 1998 PN 11: Excavac
Page 364 and 365:
1991 Maya Stone Tools: Selected Pap
Page 366 and 367:
Hruby, Zachary X., Fred Nelson, and
Page 368 and 369:
Kovacevich, Brigitte 2003 Ritual, C
Page 370 and 371:
1992a Resources, Specialization, an
Page 372 and 373:
Nelson, Fred W, Jr. 1988 Trace Elem
Page 374 and 375:
Rands, Robert, and Ronald Bishop 19
Page 376 and 377:
Scholes, France V. and Ralph L. Roy
Page 378 and 379:
Spielmann, Katherine A. 1998 Ritual
Page 380 and 381:
Tozzer, Alfred M. 1941 Landa’s Re
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