Trace element investigations of Maya chert from Belize

Abstract

The Maya site of Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded vast chipped stone workshop deposits of chert indicating that this community was a center for stone tool production in the region. Identifying the stone tools produced at Colha has implications concerning the site's role in the regional exchange systems and its relationship with neighboring centers. For these reasons, the chert-bearing zone of northern Belize, which encompasses the Colha site, was characterized. Geological chert samples from areas throughout the zone were analyzed via instrumental neutron activation analysis, and chert types were established by cluster analysis based upon the trace element composition data. The distribution of chert types throughout the chert-bearing zone was mapped. Archaeological chert samples from Colha and other Maya centers throughout the zone were characterized via discriminant analysis based on the chert types established during the geological chert survey. Colha chert was found to consist of two chert types, both locally available, and Colha-like chert was found at all the other archaeological centers tested. However, these other sites must be sampled as thoroughly as Colha (over 100 geological and archaeological samples) before the provenance of their material can be securely assigned. The geological and archaeological chert surveys reveal that only certain chert types were utilized as a tool-making raw material. The homogeneity of a single chert nodule and also of a single source area is investigated. The importance of chert's color and its degree of fossil inclusion to its cluster type assignment is examined. A total of nearly 250 chert samples were analyzed.