Dissertation Research: Maya Economic Integration: Perspectives from the Lithic Production System at El Pedernal, Guatemala

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Under the direction of Dr. Richard Leventhal, Mr. Brandon Lewis will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Building on previous fieldwork he carried out in the region, he will conduct archaeological excavations at the site of El Pedernal which is located in the northeastern Peten region of Guatemala. The site and its surrounding environs formed part of the Tikal Mayan empire and was occupied during Early and Late Classic periods. Thus it documents the height of Mayan achievement. Work to date has demonstrated the presence of a number of plaza groups and habitation sites. Mr. Brandon will conduct limited excavations at several of these to collect lithic remains. He will relate the distribution of such materials to the chert sources from which they are derived. Through analysis of the production sequence, which can be reconstructed from the byproducts recovered, he will gain insight into the organization of stone working at the site. While archaeologists have traced the rise and subsequent decline of the Mayan empire, it is still uncertain how it functioned and how large numbers of individuals were integrated into this large entity. In recent years attention has been focussed on the economic system and attempts made to understand the degree of economic specialization. Because metal tools were not available, stone played an important role in Mayan subsistence and Mr. Lewis will attempt to understand the degree to which stone tool production was either centralized or dispersed in the hands of local users. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on how complex societies developed and were maintained and will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.