Jadeite Sources and Ancient Workshops: Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Upper Río El Tambor, Guatemala

Obsidian

Aside from the main form of specialized craft production that occurred in the mountains of the upper Río El Tambor (i.e., jadeite production), the inhabitants of the small sites described in this report also practiced various forms of obsidian technology. They relied on obsidian for cutting and scraping tools, as well as a basic material for arms. The chipped obsidian from the Río El Tambor sites does not fit the normal Mesoamerican lithic traditions known for either the Guatemalan highlands or the Maya lowlands. As far as the surface finds encountered by project members, there appear to be two different tool systems in effect, at least during the Late Classic and Post Classic occupations of the area. The first is a multidirectional flake-core system, and the other is a highly advanced pressure flaking system that produced bifacial projectile points (Figure 47, below). The form and quality of these obsidian points rivals those from the Maya lowlands fashioned of tougher flint or chert. Flake cores and bifaces may or may not have been imported to the region. Nevertheless, if bifaces were imported to the Río El Tambor region, then it is clear that they were retouched or resharpened with as much skill as was required to produce them.

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Obsidian in this region may have arrived from a number of different geological sources. A short reconnaissance by Hruby of the local Jalapa obsidian source, Cerro de Joyas, showed that it was indeed exploited in antiquity. The volcanic clasts were too small for the production of large prismatic blade-cores, but they were one of the most available tool stones in the region. One disconcerting fact is that the visual characteristics of the Cerro de Joyas source are virtually identical to those from the much better known El Chayal source. Understanding the source distribution and economic exchange of this part of the Maya world will require X-ray fluorescence testing.

Luis Romero (pers. comm. 2004) has described obsidians from Vega del Coban that do not fall under the visual variability of the El Chayal source. However, the technology of the Vega del Coban obsidian artifacts appears to be similar to that found in the Río El Tambor region. Thus, the technologies used in the upper Río El Tambor region are likely related to those from downstream, but obsidian workers exploited a variety of unknown or unrecorded obsidian sources. The extent of the distribution of the obsidian materials from Cerro de Joyas is not known at this point, but it is clear that a variety of volcanic sources eroded by nearby streams likely provided tool-stone for Motagua sites, such as Vega del Coban. Aside from the Jalapa obsidians that appear to be visually identical to the El Chayal obsidians, those found in the Motagua have characteristics that do not equate with either the El Chayal or the Jalapa source.

As mentioned previously, the main technology in this region appears to be a multidirectional flake-core reduction technique. The main indicator of this is that obsidian flake artifacts from the upper Río El Tambor tend to feature a cortical platform. Although some flakes appear to be very formal according to their morphology, there is no evidence of blade-core or unidirectional flake-core reduction activities occurring in the region. Since many of these obsidian flakes have river-worn cortex on their platforms, similar to the small clasts from the Jalapa source, we may be witnessing a regional flake-core system that is unrelated to other chipped stone traditions from the Maya area. This hypothesis is supported by the obsidian artifacts found at Sitio Aguilucho and other upper Río El Tambor sites that have river worn cortex on their platforms.

At all of the sites recorded on the expedition prismatic blades were a common artifact type. Although they appeared to be from the El Chayal source, the sourcing difficulties related to the local Jalapa source, and undoubtedly other unrecorded obsidian sources, make it impossible to determine if all of the blades present at the jade-producing locales were made from El Chayal blade-cores. Nevertheless, it can be said with certainty that there were no Ixtepeque or San Martín Jilotepeque blades thus far recovered. Since there were no blade-cores or blade-core debitage found on the surface or in looter’s pits, it is likely that blade production did not occur in the investigated sites.

Finally, the biface tradition in the mountains of eastern Guatemala appears to have a technological relationship with the biface chert traditions of the Maya Lowlands. Although the projectile point tradition from the Pacific Coast (i.e., unifacially-worked spear and dart points) is quite similar in basic outline to those in our sample, the bifacial tradition of Eastern Guatemala may be unique. At least one point is technologically similar to archaic lithic technology, but without a larger collection from dated contexts, it is impossible to distinguish between later and earlier points. Further excavation and lithic analysis are necessary to determine the origin of the upper Río El Tambor obsidian traditions.

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