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Flakes to Blades? Middle Formative Development of Obsidian Artifacts in the Upper Belize River Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jaime Awe  and
Paul F. Healy
Jaime Awe
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8
Paul F. Healy
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8
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Abstract

The recovery of obsidian artifacts in radiometrically dated cultural stratigraphic levels at the Maya site of Cahal Pech (Belize) suggests that there was a flake-to-bladelet sequence of development of obsidian technology in the Belize Valley region of the Maya lowlands. Obsidian artifacts within levels dating to the first half of the early Middle Formative period (1000-850 B.C.) at Cahal Pech consist exclusively of flakes. Prismatic blades first occur in late Middle Formative (650-450 B.C.) levels, and remain the predominant artifact type throughout the subsequent Late Formative and Classic periods. This Middle Formative transition in obsidian artifacts has been recorded elsewhere in Mesoamerica, but the Cahal Pech data represent the first explicitly documented case of the developmental sequence in the central Maya lowlands.

La recuperación de artefactos de obsidiana en niveles estratigráficos culturales fechados radiometricamente en el sitio maya de Cahal Pech (Belice) sugiere que ahí había una secuencia de hojuela a navajas prismáticas en la tecnología de obsidiana en la región del valle de Belice en las tierras bajas mayas. Artefactos de obsidiana dentro de los niveles fechados en la primera mitad del período Formativo Medio temprano (1000-850 A.C.) en Cahal Pech consisten exclusivamente de herramientas de hojuela. Hojas prismáticas se encontraron por primera vez en los niveles Medio Formativo tardio (650-450 A.C.) y continuían siendo el tipo de herramienta predominante a lo largo de los subsecuentes períodos Formativo Tardío y Clásico. Esta transición del tipo de artefacto de obsidiana durante el período Formativo Medio ha sido notada en otras partes de Mesoamérica, pero los datos de Cahal Pech representan el primer caso explícitamente documentado de esta secuencia de desarrollo en las tierras bajas centrales mayas.

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Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 193 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1994

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References

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