Exploitation of chert resources by the ancient Maya of northern Belize, Central America

Abstract

The region of the Maya Lowlands that is now northern Belize has two major lithic resources that were utilized by prehistoric populations. The major resource is chert, restricted to a 500‐square kilometre zone. To the west and north, geologic faults have exposed outcroppings of chalcedony, a much poorer quality material, in this instance, for stone tool manufacture. The fine‐grained cherts were utilized as early as Paleo‐Indian and Archaic times, atlhough the intensive use of this raw material began in the Maya Late Preclassic, around 250 B.C. This is best documented at the site of Colha, the locus of stone tool mass production for more than 1000 years. Chert nodules were collected or quarried with minimal effort from surface exposures and there is also evidence of shallow pit mining activity. From Colha, formal tools made from these cherts were exported to Maya communities outside the chert‐bearing zone, where they were used as axes, adzes, and hoes and greatly augmented a limited range of expediency tools made of chalcedony.