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Techniques of Ancient Maya Bone Working: Evidence from a Classic Maya Deposit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kitty F. Emery
Kitty F. Emery*
Affiliation:
Florida Museum of Natural History, Dickinson Hall, University of Florida 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800 (kemery@flmnh.ufl.edu)
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Abstract

An assemblage of modified bone remains from the site of Dos Pilas, Guatemala, in the southern Maya lowlands, is used to describe the raw materials, tools, techniques, and reduction strategies of Classic period Maya bone working. Most Maya bone artifact assemblages are not closely associated with production locales, are sparsely distributed across sites (rarely more than a few per household), and include primarily finished artifacts. In contrast, this large collection includes high frequencies of debitage from all stages of artifact production in a single spatially and temporally discrete locus—a residential group close to the main plaza of the site and occupied both before and after political disintegration of the Petexbatún hegemony. Comparative Petexbatún materials are used to suggest that although the Dos Pilas assemblage is unusually dense, the methods used by the bone crafters in this complex were similar to those used in all other periods and locations in the region and likely in the southern Maya lowlands as a whole. The Dos Pilas assemblage presents therefore an excellent model for Classic Maya bone-working.

Resumen

Resumen

Analizamos una muestra de restos óseos modificados del sitio de Dos Pilas, Guatemala para describir sus materias primas, herramientas utilizadas, técnicas y estrategias de reducción en tiempos clásicos mayas. La mayoría de los conjuntos óseos artefactuales mayas no están asociadas a un lugar de producción, sino más bien están esparcidos en los sitios e incluyen sobre todo artefactos terminados. A diferencia de esto, esta muestra incluye altas frecuencias de restos de todos los estados de producción en una ubicación cronológicamente discreta—un grupo residencial ocupado antes y después de la desintegración política de la hegemonía del Petexbatún. Su comparación con materiales de otros sitios y períodos de Petexbatún indican que, a pesar de que la colección de Dos Pilas es inusualmente densa, sus métodos fueron semejantes a aquellos de todos períodos y sitios de la región. La muestra de Dos Pilas presenta, por esta razón, un modelo excelente para el estudio de la elaboración de artefactos óseos de los mayas del Clásico.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 204 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2008

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