An Examination of Chipped-Stone Materials at the Wo’ Residential Group at Yaxnohcah, Southern Campeche, Mexico
Date
2020-05-22
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Abstract
This thesis research is an analysis of a chipped-stone assemblage from an elite residential compound, referred to as the Wo’ Group, at the ancient Maya archaeological site of Yaxnohcah, southern Campeche, Mexico. This group is situated roughly between two monumental complexes, with the bulk of its occupation dated to the Late Classic (550 – 750 C.E.), ascertained by excavations conducted in 2015 (Peuramaki-Brown et al. 2016). The chipped-stone assemblage is comprised of predominantly debitage, along with tool fragments, informal flake tools, and an intact elongated biface. The principal purpose of this research was to reconstruct the lithic manufacture and consumption behaviour of the Wo’ Group’s occupants through defining the manufacturing behaviours, identifying patterns of distribution to indicate specialized activity areas, and uncover variation in the level of lithic activities between depositional contexts. The chipped-stone assemblage was subjected to a typological analysis and debitage was classified based on morphological attributes to examine stages of reduction and manufacturing techniques. The tool types were compared to other studies around the Maya lowlands for identification purposes. Based on examination, the assemblage currently few tools; however, it appears that bifaces were manufactured at the group based on the evidence of bifacial-thinning flakes, an early stage biface, biface production failures, and medial biface fragments. Early to late stages of core and tool reduction are evident at the group, along with several flakes modified into informal tools. The predominate raw material type is a light grey chert variety. Furthermore, over half of the material has evidence of some form of thermal alteration. The Wo’ Group occupants were involved in low-level household production for their own consumption purposes.
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Keywords
Lithic Analysis, Ancient Maya, Households
Citation
Haggard, A. J. (2020). An Examination of Chipped-Stone Materials at the Wo’ Residential Group at Yaxnohcah, Southern Campeche, Mexico (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.