Preclassic Chert Features of San Bartolo, Guatemala
Figure 1. San Bartolo - Xultun region (click to enlarge).
LOCATION AND DISCOVERY
San Bartolo is an ancient Maya archaeological site located in the northeast corner of the Department of Petén, Guatemala (Figure 1). Discovered by William Saturno in 2001, the site is well known for its Preclassic murals (ca. 100 B.C.) (Figure 2) and early examples of hieroglyphic writing (ca. 200 - 300 B.C.).
The site is comprised of 246 structures clustered within a 4 km2 area (Figure 3). There are four main architectural groups aligned along a northwest-southeast axis, all of which contain monumental architecture. Residential architecture is dispersed throughout the site, though the majority of house mounds are located along the western, southern, and northeastern site peripheries. A small aguada is located adjacent to the main plaza, and numerous limestone quarries have been found in close proximity to monumental architecture.
Figure 2. Jaguar attacking birds. North Wall, Las Pinturas Murals, San Bartolo (click to enlarge).
Figure 3. San Bartolo site map (click to enlarge).
Figure 4. Photograph and Surfer 3D Wireframe map of a chert feature (click to enlarge).
Figure 5. Chert feature celt chaîne opératoire (click to enlarge).
Chert Features
In terms of research, my dissertation, Ideological Presentism and the Study of Ancient Technology: Preclassic Maya Lithic Production at San Bartolo, Guatemala, argues that archaeological technology studies constitute a social field dominated by perspectives grounded in formalist economic theory. The origins of this theoretical framework are rooted in specific historical processes, including the emergence of mechanized production and the factory system during the Industrial Revolution. Thus, a priori assumptions of equivalence between Western and non-Western/pre-modern experiences of the human-technology equation represent a form of ideological presentism.
Using the Preclassic (800 BC-AD 300) Maya site of San Bartolo as a case study, I conducted aggregate and typological analyses of 36,497 pieces of lithic debitage recovered from specialized celt production contexts (i.e., chert features). These data were used to construct a chaîne opératoire (i.e., sequential model) that was compared to the organization of celt production at the Maya site of Colha. I found that despite being located in similar environments, the production of the same tool type was organized in different ways. While the Colha data matched formalist expectations of production geared towards maximization and efficiency, production activities at San Bartolo were unequivocally inefficient. This was due to the transport of large quantities of unsuitable raw materials. Instead, perspectives that emphasized technological choice and the social shaping of technical systems (SST) were more successful in accounting for the organization of production at San Bartolo.
You can read more about San Bartolo celt production and communities of practice here.
Additional Resources
Kwoka, Joshua J. 2017. Finding Value in the Mundane: Chert Features and Communities of Practice at San Bartolo, Guatemala. In The Value of Things: Commodities in the Maya Region from Prehistoric to Contemporary, edited by Jennifer P. Mathews and Thomas H. Guderjan, pp.49-66. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Images and analysis of the San Bartolo murals can be found in:
Saturno, William, David Stuart, and Heather Hurst. 2010. The Murals of San Bartolo, El Petén, Guatemala. Part 2: The West Wall. Ancient America 10. Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, Barnardsville.
Hurst, Heather. 2009. Murals and the Ancient Maya Artist: A Study of Art Production in the Guatemalan Lowlands. Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, UMI Microform.
Saturno, William, Karl A. Taube, David Stuart and Heather Hurst. 2007. The Murals of San Bartolo, El Petén, Guatemala. Part 1: The North Wall. Ancient America 7. Center for Ancient American Studies, Barnardsville.
Proyecto San Bartolo Website
http://www.sanbartolo.org/
Proyecto Arqueologico Regional San Bartolo – Xultun Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/434984946534991/