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Trace Element Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from a Classic Maya Residential Group at Nohmul, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Norman Hammond ,
Mary D. Neivens  and
Garman Harbottle
Norman Hammond
Affiliation:
Archaeology Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Mary D. Neivens
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, L.I., NY 11973
Garman Harbottle
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, L.I., NY 11973
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Abstract

Forty-nine obsidian artifacts from a Classic period residential group at Nohmul, northern Belize, have been analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The majority of the samples originated from Ixtepeque, and the remainder from El Chayal. Increasing prominence of the Ixtepeque source from the Late Classic into the Terminal Classic (i.e., before and after ca. A.D. 800) suggests greater use of a coastal distribution route known to have originated in the Formative and to have remained in use through the colonial period.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 815 - 820
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1984

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References

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