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Advances in Geochemical Sourcing of Granite Ground Stone

Ancient Maya Artifacts from the Middle Belize Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2021

Marieka Brouwer Burg Open the ORCID record for Marieka Brouwer Burg [Opens in a new window] ,
Tawny L. B. Tibbits Open the ORCID record for Tawny L. B. Tibbits [Opens in a new window]  and
Eleanor Harrison-Buck
Marieka Brouwer Burg*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
Tawny L. B. Tibbits
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Chadron State College, Chadron, NE, USA
Eleanor Harrison-Buck
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
*
(Marieka.brouwer-burg@uvm.edu; corresponding author)
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Abstract

Often understudied by archaeologists, ground stone tools (GST) were ubiquitous in the ancient Maya world. Their applications ranged from household tools to ceremonial equipment and beyond. Little attention has been focused on chemically sourcing the raw stone material used in GST production, largely because these tools were fashioned out of igneous or sedimentary rock, which can present characterization challenges. And, although portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) has been applied widely to source obsidian, the utility of pXRF for geochemically sourcing other kinds of stone remains underexplored. We present a small-scale application of pXRF for determining granite provenance within a section of the Middle Belize Valley in Belize, Central America. Belize is an ideal location to test chemical sourcing studies of granite because there are only three tightly restricted and chemically distinct sources of granite in the country, from which the overwhelming majority of granite for ancient tool production derived. The method described here demonstrates that successful and accurate geological characterizations can be made on granite GST. This cutting-edge sourcing technique has the potential to be more widely applied in other regions to reveal deeper connections between the sources of GST production and sites of consumption across space and through time.

Poco estudiadas por los arqueólogos, las piedras de moler (GST en inglés) eran omnipresentes en el mundo maya antiguo. Sus aplicaciones varían desde herramientas domésticas hasta equipos ceremoniales y más usos. Se ha prestado poca atención a la procedencia de la piedra en bruto utilizada en la producción de GST en gran parte porque estas herramientas se fabricaban a partir de roca ígnea o sedimentaria, lo que puede presentar desafíos de caracterización. Y, aunque instrumentos portátiles de espectrometría fluorescente (pXRF) se han aplicado ampliamente a las fuentes geológicas de artefactos de obsidiana, la utilidad del pXRF para obtener la procedencia de otros tipos de piedra geoquímicamente sigue sin ser explorada. Presentamos una aplicación en pequeña escala de pXRF para determinar la procedencia del granito dentro de una sección del Valle Medio de Belice en Belice, Centroamérica. Belice es un lugar ideal para probar el origen químico del granito, ya que sólo hay tres fuentes de granito estrictamente restringidas y químicamente distintas en el país, de las cuales se deriva la gran mayoría del granito para la producción de herramientas antiguas. El método descrito aquí demuestra que se pueden realizar caracterizaciones geológicas exitosas y precisas con GST de granito. Esta técnica innovadora tiene el potencial de aplicarse más ampliamente en otras regiones para revelar conexiones más profundas entre las fuentes de producción de GST y los sitios de consumo en el espacio y el tiempo.

Keywords

ground stone toolsgeochemical sourcinggranitepXRFAncient MayaBelizepiedras de molerprocedencia geoquímicogranitopXRFAntigua MayaBelice
Type
Article
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , November 2021 , pp. 338 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology

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