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“Workshops” and “Specialized Production” in the Production of Maya Chert Tools: A Response to Shafer and Hester

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John K. Mallory
John K. Mallory*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
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Abstract

A reexamination of the data presented by Shafer and Hester (1983) indicates that the level of specialized production and volume of intersite exchange of chert tools in the area of Colha has been greatly overstated. Evaluation of rates of production over time suggests that at most a few thousand chert tools were produced per year at Colha, indicating a very low level of specialization, if any. The context of the chert debitage deposits is suggestive of domestic production for household use, rather than the “industrial-level mass production” postulated by Shafer and Hester.

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Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 152 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1986

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References

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