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The Pre-Columbian Obsidian Industry of El Chayal, GuatemalaAuthor(s): Michael D. Coe and Kent V. FlannerySource: American Antiquity, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jul., 1964), pp. 43-49Published by: Society for American ArchaeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/277629 .

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THE PRE-COLUMBIAN OBSIDIAN INDUSTRY OF EL CHAYAL, GUATEMALA

MICHAEL D. COE AND KENT V. FLANNERY

ABSTRACT

El Chayal is an extensive obsidian workshop site in an area of major obsidian deposits northeast of Guate- mala City. Surface collections include a great number of elongated, unretouched flakes that were probably used as blanks, stemmed projectile points resembling the Wells type, shouldered knives, very large discoidal scrapers, a heavy chopper, bifacial utility implements, and large unretouched blades similar to that found with the Izta- pan mammoth in Mexico. Pre-Columbian pottery does not occur. On the basis of this absence, and from a comparison of the artifacts with stone tools from other regions in Mesoamerica, it is believed that the El Chayal industry can be dated to the middle and late Archaic period, roughly from 5000 to 1500 B.C.

THE MAJOR OBSIDIAN deposits in Guate- mala lie in the dissected uplands northeast

of Guatemala City, extending from the railway stop of El Fiscal, about 12 km. from the capital, to Aguas Calientes, some 20 km. from the city. The new highway to Puerto Barrios cuts through these deposits, and vast quantities of obsidian nodules of all sizes can be seen in exposed pro- files. It would be logical to suppose that this naturally occurring obsidian would have been heavily exploited by the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Guatemalan highlands. For instance, the Late Classic site of Azacualpilla, about 2 km. south-southeast of El Fiscal, shows extensive evidence of an ancient obsidian industry on its outskirts, where great numbers of obsidian nodules, chips, and worked points lie on the surface (Shook 1957: 72-3).

El Chayal (Fig. 1), an even more productive workshop site about 1 km. north of Azacual- pilla, was initially reconnoitered by Mr. and Mrs. Carlos H. Nottebohm of Guatemala City who, during a number of field trips, made a large collection of artifacts. In the fall. of 1958 they guided Coe and his wife to the site, and more obsidian implements were gathered. Fin- ally, in May, 1962, Coe and Flannery undertook a further reconnaissance of El Chayal.

The site is on the top and slopes of a series of low hills just east of the Atlantic coast highway. Several related families of ladinoized In- dians live in the midst of the site, the hamlet drawing its name from the local term for obsidian, chay. There is so much worked obsidian over the area that very little soil can be seen.

43

Exactly how deep these deposits are has not been determined, as we made no excavation, but in some places small mounds formed en- tirely of large, crude flakes can be seen. At the summit of one hill above the hamlet, the ancient inhabitants had dug several wide pits to mine underground deposits of the material. Most of the worked specimens seen are the flakes mentioned above, of which there may well be several hundred thousand covering the site.

No ancient constructions of any sort occur at El Chayal and, so far as can be determined by reconnaissance alone, the site is totally nonceramic. The only sherds found were a small handful consisting of fragments of modern Chinautla water jars and glazed vessels, and these were on the site of a former house. Clear- ly, El Chayal was once a great obsidian workshop that was utilized over a long period of time, but the problem of the date of its formation will be deferred until the final section of this report.

The industry as a whole centered on the pro- duction of large flakes from prepared cores. Of 31 cores collected, 18 are triangular in section (Fig. 2 j), the length ranging from 6 to 11.5 cm. and the diameter of the striking platform ranging from 4 to 11 cm. These extremely crude cores bear from 8 to 14 irregular flake scars, and it is interesting that in all cases there was an attempt to remove the scar of percussion by grinding before striking the subsequent flake. Four butts of exhausted cores probably come from this triangular, polyhedral type and show large sections removed by powerful hinge frac- tures. All evidence suggests that an anvil-on- anvil technique of flake removal was used. We examined six polyhedral cores of somewhat narrower cross section, ranging from 5.8 to 9.4 cm. in length and 3.3 to 4.5 cm. in width at the striking platform, with six to nine irregular flake scars; a direct-percussion technique was utilized in these examples as well. The many thousands of crude, elongated flakes with prominent bulbs of percussion found underfoot were produced from cores of this nature, and the cores could have been collected in far greater numbers. An- other type of polyhedral core, rare at El Chayal,



AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

FIG. 1. Map of south-central Guatemala showing locations of El Chayal and San Rafael.

is bullet.shaped (Fig. 2 1); in length these cores range from 8 to 11.8 cm., in width from 35 to 50 cm., and they bear seven to 10 irregular scars that represent removal of "blades" .5 to 1 cm. in width and with more or less parallel edges.

One of the striking features of the industry at El Chayal is the patination visible in varying degrees on all artifacts and cores examined, probably caused by hydration of the obsidian surface over a considerable period of time (Smith and Friedman 1960), but perhaps ac- centuated by the exposure of surface deposits to sun. However, this patination, which varies from a mere dulling of the blackness on some specimens to a milky, matte white on others, is far greater than on any other obsidian artifacts that we have seen from Guatemala, with the exception of the fluted point from San Rafael (M. D. Coe 1960).

THE ARTIFACTS

It should be stressed that, among the artifacts to be described below, the long, unretouched flakes are hundreds of times more frequent than the worked tools which have been found.

Stemmed projectile points (Fig. 2 a-c). Three examples of stemmed projectile points were collected. These are bifacially flaked by percussion; the blade is triangular, with slightly convex lateral edges, and the straight stem, which is slightly less than one-half the total length, is set off from the blade by shallow shoulders. The one measurable specimen is 10 cm. in length and has a thickness of 5 cm. These are similar to the Wells type described by Suhm and Jelks (1962: 257).

Unifacial knives (Fig. 2 d, e). Two dagger- like, unifacially worked flakes were found; the chipping is confined to the edges of the point near the apex. These are probably knives or piercing tools. One has a length of 6 cm., the other a length of 13.3 cm.

Leaf-shaped bifacial projectile points or knives (Fig. 2 f, g). Although no complete examples were found, from 11 fragments it is clear that they were rather thin, laurel-leaf-shaped artifacts with percussion-flaking over all or near- ly all of both faces, and with pointed or slightly rounded bases. It is estimated that in length they ranged from 9 to 14 cm. and in width from 2.5 to 4.7 cm.

Ovoid bifacial knives (Fig. 3 e, f, i). These are knives produced on ovoid flakes by percussion-flaking over all or most of both faces. They are relatively thin (1.2 to 2 cm.); four complete specimens vary in length from 7.4 to 9.5 cm. and in width from 3 to 5.5 cm., but a much larger fragment (Fig. 3 i) may have been 11 cm. in length.

Large, leaf-shaped bifacial knives. Forty-one fragments of more or less leaf-shaped artifacts have been percussion-flaked over all of one face and all or most of the other. They are probably too thin in proportion to their size to have been projectile points. Estimated length ranges from 11 to 17 cm.; width ranges from 3.5 to 6.5 cm. and thickness from .8 to 2 cm. There are usually two cutting edges, but occasionally only one. The category grades into that of leaf-shaped projectile points on one end and into bifacial utility implements on the other.

Shouldered knives (Fig. 3 g, h). Of three fragmentary specimens, one (Fig. 3 h) is a sin- gle-shouldered, percussion-flaked knife vaguely reminiscent of Sandia "points" (Wormington 1957, Fig. 68) and early Viscachani shouldered "knives" (Ibarra Grasso 1958, Figs. 1-3). Its original length was probably 12 cm.; its present width is 5 cm. and its thickness is 1.4 cm. There is evidence of grinding on the shoulder indenta- tion. The remaining specimens are double- shouldered and percussion-flaked, one of the pieces having pressure retouching along both edges of the stem on one face (Fig. 3 g) and the other showing a very strange extra indenta- tion chipped into one edge of the stem, form- ing a "supernumerary" shoulder.

Discoidal scrapers (Fig. 2 m, n). These scrapers or scraping planes are very large. One frag-

44 [ VoI.. 30, No. 1, 1964



EL CHAYAL, GUATEMALA

1

g

i I

I I I I I I

bIc

a b c

e

d

1

J

k

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ipcms. I I I, I I I . . I

0

n p

FIG. 2. Obsidian artifacts from El Chayal. a-c, stemmed projectile points; d, e, unifacial knives; f, g, leaf-shaped, bifacial projectile points or knives; h, i, unretouched flakes; j-l, polyhedral cores; m, n, discoidal scrapers or scraping planes; o, triangular scraper; p, chopper.

hi

h i

m

45 COE AND FLANNERY ]



AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

ment (Fig. 2 m) represents about half of an enormous scraper with an original diameter of 16.5 cm. that was fashioned from a naturally flat obsidian slab; the scraping edge is ground or battered. The other (Fig. 2 n) is 12.5 cm. in diameter and was produced from the top section of a core by removal of about 23 flakes from the edge; the lower part of the scraping edge is also ground or battered.

Triangular scraper (Fig. 2 o). This specimen is an ovate scraper that was produced on a large thick flake, the outer surface and butt of which still show cortex. The material is a mottled, coffee-colored obsidian. It is 9.3 cm. in length and 6.5 cm. in width.

Chopper (Fig. 2 p). This crude implement measures about 10 cm. in diameter and 3.5 cm. in thickness. It was produced on a discoidal obsidian cobble by removal of approximately 10 short, irregular flakes. The edges are considerably battered, and the surface is markedly patinated.

Bifacial utility implements (Fig. 3 j-l). Elev- en complete and broken medium-sized ellip- soidal tools range in length from 10.3 to about 16 cm., in width from 5 to 8 cm., and in thickness from 2.0 to 3.2 cm. Percussion-flaking was carried out over all or most of both faces, and there is little or no retouching. These implements are too thick to have been knives and too blunt for points or picks; they probably were multipurpose cutting or flensing tools.

Picks and picklike tools (Fig. 3 b). Seven specimens, complete and fragmentary, of bifacial tools have been worked by massive percussion-flaking on part or all of both faces and are sufficiently pointed at one end to have been picks or similar tools. Length ranges from 7.5 to approximately 20 cm., width from 4 to 6 cm., and thickness from 1.5 to 3 cm. A few of these are considerably battered and blunted through use.

Chipped celts or adzes (Fig. 3 c, d). Three examples of crude celts or adzes were apparently produced by irregular percussion-flaking on broken pieces of cores. One specimen (Fig. 3 c) has been secondarily ground. Length ranges from 8.5 to 11.8 cm., width from 5 to 5.5 cm., and thickness from 2 to 3 cm.

Spokeshave (Fig. 3 a). This specimen is a thick blade 14.5 cm. in length and 5 cm. in width. The crescent-shaped niche, which would

accommodate a shaft approximately 3 cm. in diameter, was produced first by chipping and then by grinding.

End-of-blade scraper. This is a blade 11 cm. in length, 2.7 cm. in width, and 1 cm. thick; one end has been chipped to form a scraping edge about 1.5 cm. in width.

Unretouched flakes (Fig. 2 h, i). These are long, triangular obsidian flakes, sometimes slightly curved at the tip, that would have been suit- able "blanks" for making projectile points and knives; they were struck from the triangular polyhedral cores previously described. Of the 70 specimens collected, the range of variation is as follows: length 6 to 19 cm., width 2.5 to 4 cm., thickness .5 to 3 cm.

Retouched flakes. Ten flakes show some retouching along one or both cutting edges, but there is no noticeable difference in dimensions between these and the unretouched flakes.

Unretouched blades. Twenty examples of fairly parallel-sided blades were collected. These are highly unstandardized and are not the fa- miliar razorlike prismatic blades so common at Mesoamerican ceramic sites. The range of variation is as follows: length 5 to 13 cm., width 1.5 to 3 cm., thickness .4 to 1 cm.

Retouched blade. One very large blade is retouched along both edges and was perhaps used as a knife.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

A precise dating of the obsidian industry at El Chayal would be difficult if not impossible. However, the apparent absence of both pre- Spanish ceramics and of the narrow prismatic obsidian blades that have characterized archaeological sites in Guatemala from the Formative period on suggests that the industry is preceramic, that is, belonging either to the Paleo- Indian or to the Archaic ("Incipient Agricul- tural") period, or to both.

In support of this position, the unretouched blades found at El Chayal are in size and work- manship remarkably similar to the blade found with the first mammoth at Santa Isabel Iztapan (Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda and Maldonado- Koerdell 1953, Fig. 105, No. 5) and to blades typical of the preceramic cultures of the Te- huacan Valley before the Abejas phase about 3500 B.C. (MacNeish 1962). The crude chopper (Fig. 2 p), which is the most deeply patinated

46 [ VOL. 30, No. 1, 1964




a

C

f c

d g

1 K

1

k O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 cms. t I I I I . a . I . .

FIG. 3. Obsidian artifacts from El Chayal. a, spokeshave; b, pick or picklike tool; c, d, chipped celts or adzes; e, f, i, ovoid bifacial knives; g, h, shouldered knives; j-l, bifacial utility implements.

b h

47 COE AND FLANNERY ]

i

v

I __

i



AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

of all the artifacts in the collection, cannot be readily matched elsewhere in Mesoamerica, but it recalls the fossil-wood choppers of Manzanillo, Venezuela (Cruxent 1962). We have already mentioned the resemblances of our shouldered knives to examples from Sandia and Viscachani. The size and crudity of the polyhedral cores and the immense proportions of the scrapers or scraper planes certainly do not fit well with a Formative, Classic, or Post-Classic dating.

On the other hand, it is possible that some of the artifacts are from ceramic periods. For instance, stemmed projectile points resembling the Wells type were found in mound fill at Zacualpa (Wauchope 1948, P1. 24 a-h). A large obsidian scraper like Fig. 2 n was encountered in the fill of Mound A-1 at Kaminaljuyui (Kid- der and others 1946, Fig. 56). Furthermore, bifacial utility implements have a Formative through Late Classic distribution in the Maya lowlands (W. R. Coe 1959: 11), although En- gerrand (1912) claimed that the workshop site of La Concepcion, Campeche, characterized by such tools, was extremely ancient. Lastly, no fluted, fluted-stemmed (Bullen and Plowden 1963) or other surely Paleo-Indian and very early Archaic points were discovered at El Chayal.

Nevertheless, we believe that El Chayal is not just nonceramic but preceramic. It is incon- ceivable that such a quantity of artifacts could have been turned out except by groups of people who spent long periods at the site. If these had lived in ceramic times, they at least would have had to bring in jars of water (there are none at El Chayal) and some of these would have broken. It is also improbable that, if the workshop had been operating in Formative times or later, the artisans would have failed to make the narrow prismatic blades then in use all over Mesoamerica. However, in the absence of fluted points and other certainly Paleo-Indian artifacts, we feel that the workshop was in use mainly during the middle and late Archaic period (ca. 5000-1500 B.C.), being contemporary with incipient agricultural sites in Tehuacan and in Chiapas (MacNeish and Peterson 1962). Mac- Neish, who has seen the drawings of the specimens from El Chayal, concurs with us in this placement.

This obsidian workshop is not unique in Mesoamerica. In 1899 Holmes (1919) visited and described a quarry and workshop at Sierra de las Navajas, 12 miles northeast of Pachuca,

Hidalgo, where deposits of obsidian flakes and fragments on the mountain slope measured up to 40 feet in depth. Among the worked implements were hammerstones and a crude chopper, quantities of massive polyhedral cores with anvil-on-anvil flake scars (one of these cores is triangular in cross section), unifacially worked scrapers made on long, thick flakes, and long unifacial picks. Absent were narrow, prismatic blades and the slender cores from which they were removed. The only projectile points found were lying on fields at the base of the mountain. Holmes discovered several large depressions at the Sierra de las Navajas that repre- sented quarrying pits exactly like those at El Chayal, and these depressions were surrounded by waste flakes.

To Holmes, the massive polyhedral cores were but blanks for the finer polyhedral cores, blades from which were struck elsewhere, as the razor- sharp edges and needlelike points would be damaged in transit down the mountain. This hardly seems a reasonable conclusion, since fine, prismatic obsidian blades were carried by traders over great distances in Mesoamerica without noticeable damage (witness the Guatemalan highland blades in lowland Maya sites). We conclude, therefore, that both El Chayal and the Sierra de las Navajas were Archaic quarry- workshops, where enormous quantities of blanks were produced for export in the form of large, long obsidian flakes, as well as occasional chipped tools and projectile points for the use of the obsidian workers at the quarries.

Acknowledgments. This work was supported by the Institute of Andean Research as part of the project en- titled "Interrelationships of New World Cultures," under a grant from the National Science Foundation. We thank Mr. and Mrs. Carlos H. Nottebohm for their kindness in allowing us to study their large collection from El Chayal and for introducing us to the site. The drawings of artifacts in this article were made by Sr. Antonio Oliveros.

AVELEYRA ARROYO DE ANDA, LUIS AND MANUEL

MALDONADO-KOERDELL

1953 Association of Artifacts with Mammoth in the Valley of Mexico. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 332-40. Salt Lake City.

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1963 Preceramic Archaic Sites in the Highlands of Honduras. American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 382-5. Salt Lake City.

COE, MICHAEL D.

1960 A Fluted Point from Highland Guatemala. American Antiquity, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 412-3. Salt Lake City.

48 [ VOL. 30, No. 1, 1964




COE, WILLIAM R.

1959 Piedras Negras Archaeology: Artifacts, Caches, and Burials. University Museum, Philadelphia.

CRUXENT, JosE M.

1962 Artifacts of Paleo-Indian Type, Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela. American Antiquity, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 576-9. Salt Lake City.

ENGERRAND, JORGE

1912 La huella mas antigua quiza del hombre en la Peninsula de Yucatan. In Resefna de la 2a sesi6n del 17? Congreso Internacional de Americanis- tas, pp. 89-100. Mexico.

HOLMES, WILLIAM H.

1919 Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities. Part I, Introductory: The Lithic Industries. Bu- reau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 60. Wash- ington, D.C.

IBARRA GRASSO, DICK EDGAR

1958 Das Altpalaolithikum in Amerika. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 170-97. Braunschweig.

KIDDER, ALFRED V., JESSE D. JENNINGS, AND EDWIN M. SHOOK

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MACNEISH, RICHARD S.

1962 Second Annual Report of the Tehuacadn Ar- chaeological-Botanical Project. R. S. Peabody Foundation, Andover.

MACNEISH, RICHARD S. AND FREDRICK A. PETERSON

1962 The Santa Marta Rock Shelter, Ocozocoautla, Chiapas. Papers, New World Archaeological Foundation, 14. Provo.

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New Haven, Connecticut

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Chicago, Illinois

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COE AND FLANNERY ] 49

