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Sealing with Stone: Assessing an Assemblage of Lithic Debitage from a Funerary Context at the Lowland Maya City of Caracol, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2020

Lisa M. Johnson Open the ORCID record for Lisa M. Johnson [Opens in a new window]  and
Lucas R. Martindale Johnson
Lisa M. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV89154, USA
Lucas R. Martindale Johnson
Affiliation:
Far Western Anthropological Research Group, 1180 Center Point Dr. Suite 100, Henderson, NV89074, USA
*
(lisa.johnson@unlv.edu, corresponding author)
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Abstract

Excavators working in a ceremonial plaza group in the Classic period Lowland Maya city of Caracol, Belize, encountered thousands of pieces of chert and obsidian scattered above a royal tomb. A recent analysis of the chert from this context confirms that the assemblage included pieces from each stage of reduction in the production of blades. Taken together, the quantity of both chert and obsidian makes it the largest reported collection of lithic debitage found at the site and provides insight into the techniques of lithic crafters at Caracol. In this article, we consider the sequence of actions involved in the burial of a high-ranking individual and suggest that the layering of flaked stone above the tomb is reminiscent of other reported above-tomb contexts in the Maya Lowlands. Further, a technological analysis of this collection produced results similar to analyses of assemblages typically found in crafting-intensive residential groups. This finding suggests that lithic crafters throughout the city of Caracol donated flaked stone material for funerary events, providing a protective layer and sealing the grave below.

Las investigaciones arqueológicas llevadas a cabo en un grupo de plaza ceremonial en la ciudad Maya de Caracol, Belice situado en las Tierras Bajas, encontraron miles de fragmentos de pedernal y obsidiana esparcidos sobre una tumba real. Un análisis reciente del pedernal desde este contexto confirma que la colección incluía fragmentos de cada etapa de reducción en la producción de cuchillos. En conjunto, la cantidad de pedernal y obsidiana es la colección más grande de desechos de producción artesanal que se haya reportada en el sitio y proporciona información sobre las técnicas de los artesanos líticos de Caracol. En este artículo, consideramos la secuencia de acciones involucradas en el entierro de un individuo de alto rango y sugerimos que la estratificación de piedra tallada sobre la tumba recuerda a otros contextos reportados sobre la tumba en las Tierras Bajas Mayas. Además, descubrimos que los resultados de un análisis tecnológico en esta colección fueron similares a las colecciones que se encuentran típicamente en los talleres residenciales de piedras tallada. Este hallazgo sugiere que los artesanos líticos de toda la ciudad de Caracol fueron llamados para provisión eventos funerarios con piedra talladas, proporcionando una capa protectora y sellando la tumba debajo.

Keywords

mortuary practiceClassic Mayalithic analysisrituales mortuoriosMaya Clásicoanálisis lítica
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 39 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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