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El Chayal, Guatemala: A Chronological and Behavioral Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joseph W. Michels
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Abstract

In 1964 M. Coe and K. Flannery reported on the existence of a major obsidian chipping station, El Chayal, in highland Guatemala some 15 km northeast of the large administrative and ceremonial center known as Kaminaljuyu. In that report they introduce arguments supporting their belief that the chipping station exhibited a preceramic industry, belonging either to the Archaic period or to the Paleo-Indian period, or to both. New evidence, resulting from obsidian dating, unequivocally contradicts their conclusions and thus calls into question their basic line of reasoning. Obsidian dating results suggest that the El Chayal chipping station probably dates to the Early Post Classic period IA.D. 1000-1200) and certainly no earlier than A.D. 900.

Type
Comment
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 103 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1975

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References

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