16 Chetumal's Dragonglass: Postclassic Obsidian Production and Exchange at Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

16 CHETUMAL’S DRAGONGLASS: POSTCLASSIC OBSIDIAN PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE AT SANTA RITA COROZAL, BELIZE Max Seidita, Diane Z. Chase, and Arlen F. Chase The reconstruction of patterns of obsidian production and exchange has been vital to increasing our understanding of ancient Mesoamerican economies. During the Postclassic Period (ca. 950-1532 C.E.) inhabitants of the site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize participated in multiple exchange networks to provision themselves with the materials to produce and distribute obsidian artifacts. Analyses of obsidian artifacts dating to the Postclassic Period recovered by the Corozal Postclassic Project from 1979-1985 has demonstrated that Santa Rita Corozal’s population was engaged in the production of obsidian blades, likely from partially reduced polyhedral cores. Here we present information on 572 obsidian artifacts, including details relating to the tool production sequence and pXRF sourcing data. We further present the statistical distributions of objects in relation to hypothesized function or status of each structure. Procurement of these cores from at least six different obsidian sources likely occurred as a result of indirect trade carried out by non-specialist traders. The sources represented include Otumba, Mexico, a resource not previously identified in the region. Imported raw materials were transformed into finished artifacts and then distributed through a market system. These findings contrast with the patterns of procurement and production seen at neighboring sites thought to be members of the Chetumal polity, where prismatic blade production and number of sources being exploited were more limited. We conclude by discussing these findings in relation to neighboring sites and within our broader understandings the Postclassic Period regional economy. Introduction ancient Maya. Obsidian has been included in Obsidian is one of the most commonly market studies at sites throughout the Maya recovered materials in the Maya region and region including Caracol (Chase and Chase some types of obsidian and obsidian artifacts, 2015; Chase and Chase 2014) and Xunantunich such as prismatic blades, were utilitarian goods (Cap 2015; Cap, et al. 2015) in Belize; Tikal, used in everyday life and transported in bulk into Guatemala (Masson and Freidel 2012); sites across the lowlands (Braswell 2003; Mayapan, Mexico (Masson and Freidel 2012); Edwards 1978; Smith 2003). A testimony to and Ceren, El Salvador (Sheets 2000). Many of obsidian’s popularity and perhaps its unique these studies, including the one presented here characteristics, the ancient Maya imported for Santa Rita Corozal, rely upon data derived obsidian into regions where other sources of primarily from the excavation of households (see chipped stone, such as chert, were easily Cap (2015); Cap, et al. (2015) for a recent and accessible and commonly available to the notable exception). Less often discussed than general population. Since the early 1900s, Maya the broader mechanisms of distribution across archaeologists have viewed the presence of sites are the means by which the market itself is obsidian as an indicator of interregional provisioned. exchange and consumption, as well as one With the above in mind, here we present avenue by which to explore production (Chase an updated study of the Postclassic Period and Chase 1989; Kidder 1947; Sidrys 1976). obsidian economy at the site of Santa Rita The persistent emphasis on obsidian by Maya Corozal in northern Belize. Through a researchers may be attributed to its ubiquity in combination of lithic analysis, a sourcing study the archaeological record, the resilient nature of utilizing pXRF, and statistical analysis of both finished artifacts and production debitage, obsidian locations, we seek to understand the and its elemental properties which allow for the importation, production, and distribution of attribution of an obsidian artifact to a specific obsidian at Santa Rita Corozal during the geological source (Ferguson 2012; Shackley Postclassic Period (ca 950-1532 C.E.). We 2011). With the recent upswell in the study of argue that the Postclassic Period population of Maya market exchange, obsidian has become a Santa Rita Corozal was importing partially vital component in any discussion of the various reduced polyhedral cores from a variety of mechanisms of distribution employed by the Guatemalan and Mexican obsidian sources, Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology, Vol. 15, 2018, pp. 169-178. Copyright © 2018 by the Institute of Archaeology, NICH, Belize. Postclassic Obsidian Production and Exchange at Santa Rita producing blades locally, and then distributing the obsidian through market exchange. Through this research we aim to contribute information from the Postclassic provincial capital of Santa Rita Corozal to discussions of other obsidian economies in northern Belize. More broadly, we seek to demonstrate the value of considering the provisioning of local economies with non-local goods in conjunction with local methods of distribution, the importance of large sample sizes in the elemental sourcing of obsidian, and the value of existing collections. Santa Rita Corozal’s Obsidian Economy Located in northern Belize, Santa Rita Corozal was situated along the coast at the western end of Chetumal Bay; the site is now Figure 1. Map of Chetumal Bay showing sites mentioned largely subsumed by the sprawl of Corozal town in text. and rising sea levels. Santa Rita Corozal and its surrounding areas have been continuously occupied since at least the early Middle Preclassic Period (Chase 1981:26) with an Early Classic prominence in the region (Chase and Chase 2005). However, Maya occupation at the site reached its peak population during the Late Postclassic Period when the population of the city itself is believed to have been approximately 7,000 inhabitants (Chase 1990), not including people in the surrounding landscape. The site was situated near the mouths of three major river systems: The New River and Freshwater Creek (which both have their head waters in central Belize) and the Rio Hondo (which reaches into the Peten of Guatemala) (Figure 1). These river systems would have served as important transportation routes and would have fostered communication and exchange between the coast and inland settlements (Chase and Chase 1989). Additionally, Santa Rita Corozal’s coastal location would have facilitated its participation in both circum-peninsular trade and exchange along the Belize coast (Chase 1986); seaborne Figure 2. Map of Santa Rita Corozal From Seidita (2015), trade has long been thought to be the primary adapted from D. Chase and A. Chase 1988. means of long distance exchange amongst the Postclassic Period Maya (Sabloff and Rathje 1982; Chase and Chase 1988). Excavations took 1975). place over the span of four years and consisted Investigated by several projects since the of the mapping of 200 features including early 1900s, Santa Rita Corozal was most structures, platforms, and chultuns, as well as the intensively excavated by the Corozal Postclassic excavation of 46 of these features (Figure 2). Project (CPP) from 1979-1985 under the The 572 Late Postclassic obsidian artifacts direction of Diane and Arlen Chase (Chase discussed here were recovered by the project 170 Seidita, Chase, and Chase (information on 27 obsidian points recovered complete and segmented blades. Of these during these investigations may be found in blades, over 95% are blade segments, most of (Marino, et al. 2015)). The CPP established which may be classified as purely or partially Santa Rita Corozal as the likely location of medial. The majority of these segments retain Chetumal, the Postclassic Period provincial the “tongue” and “tongue facets” indicative of capital and the namesake of the Chetumal purposeful segmentation of blades (Hirth et al. province (Chase 1982, 1985; Chase and Chase 2006). De Leon (2009) has argued that selecting 1988, 2004, 2008). Chetumal was described in for medial segments, the flattest portion of the Spanish accounts as an economic center which blade, makes blades easier to haft. This is participated in extensive trade networks and was supported by the presence of side notching on known for producing and exporting honey and 15% of the blade assemblage. Most commonly cacao (Chase 1986). The Chetumal province blades were notched with a single unilateral side itself is thought to have occupied the area of notch. While we do not discuss use-wear modern-day northern Belize and southern analysis here, this evidence suggests a Quintana Roo. While the relationship between preference for flatter blades that were more Santa Rita Corozal and smaller sites in the easily hafted, a claim supported by an earlier use region has not been fully explored, work by wear study on Santa Rita Corozal materials by Marilyn Masson (2000) suggested that, during (Hartman 1980) that found that blade segments the Postclassic Period, Santa Rita Corozal sat had been hafted for activities like those atop a hierarchy of sites, which may have involving the repetitive cutting of a fibrous included Caye Coco, Laguna de On, Ichpaatun, material. Additionally, two initial series blades, and Sarteneja. Following Masson (2000), the from early in the reduction sequence, were “primary site” of Santa Rita Corozal was likely recovered; both have extensive edge damage that supported by smaller “secondary sites” such as likely resulted from their use as tools. Caye Coco, which were in turn supported by Obsidian production

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