PAGE 2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
MAYAN ECCENTRICS
A.D. 150 TO A.D. 1400
(ECCENTRICS)
PAGE 2 OF 6 PAGES
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM
Well of sacrifice at Chichen Itza in Yucatan.
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THE SACRED WELL AT CHICHEN ITZA
IN USE FROM A.D. 800 TO A.D. 1539 (IN TWO PHASES)
YUCATAN, MEXICO

    Among the spectacular gold and jade artifacts that were dredged from the famous Cenote of Sacrifice almost a century ago (beginning on March 5, 1904), flaked stone artifacts were also found. These were in the form of  projectile points, knife blades (some with handles still attached), obsidian blades & cores and waste flakes. Many of these artifacts were deliberately thermally damaged. But no "eccentric flints" were reported from the well.
   The most important items found in the well were those made of perishable materials like cloth, wood and bone. Items found in this category that relate to flaked stone artifacts are fire hardened wooden foreshafts that once held corner-notched spear points and finely carved atlatls.

    Chert was one of the most important natural resources available to the Maya people. Most of it was used to make stone tools, such as adzes, axes, knives, scrapers, thrusting spears, atlatl thrown dart points and core blades. The other use for chert was for the manufacture of ceremonial items, mainly in the form of eccentrics but also items such as finely crafted knife blades.

Cache of 26 Mayan "eccentric flints" and ceramic container.
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CACHE OF 26 ECCENTRICS & CERAMIC CONTAINER
MAYAN CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This complete cache of "eccentric flints" were reported to have been found on a site in Belize. A wide range of different eccentric styles are represented in the collection. Some appear to be realistic representations of animals like the scorpion in the center or the centipede at bottom center. Other examples seem to represent stylized versions of animals, like the two scorpions next to the more natural looking one in the center. Others are more geometric in shape. Some of the eccentrics may represent certain Mayan glyphs.

   One of the largest and most intensive stone tool manufacturing sites in Maya society was located at Colha in northern Belize. The location was particularly ideal because of its natural geological chert bearing soils that in fact contained an endless amount of that material. Also, there was plenty of fresh water. The first concentrated waste mounds composed of manufacturing flakes and broken artifacts appear there around 100 B.C. during the Late Preclassic Period. This is the first indication of the shift of lithic production from an individualized cottage level industry to one of a community of specialized craftsmen.

Cache of 26 Mayan "eccentric flints" and ceramic container.
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CACHE OF 26 ECCENTRICS & CERAMIC CONTAINER
MAYAN CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This ceramic container is remarkable for the perfect fit of the lid with the bowl. They can be pressed together like a modern-day plastic container until they snap together. But unlike plastic that is flexible it's difficult to remove the lid once it has been closed, without breaking off the rim. The bowl measures 13 inches (33 cm) at the outside rim and 9 1/2 inches (24.1 cm) for the inside diameter. The lid measures 12 inches (30.5 cm) for the outside diameter at the rim.

   At Colha, the raw chert was collected in two ways. One way was by picking up nodules on the surface or limited quarrying of surface boulders and the other was mining un-weathered nodular chert in the ground. The mining of chert at Colha was on a level that has been compared to some of the well known Stone Age flint mines in Europe such as Grimes Graves, Grand Pressigny, Spiennes and Rijckholt.

Serrated crescent Mayan eccentric.
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MAYAN ECCENTRIC
WIDE-SPACE SERRATED & NOTCHED CRESCENT DESIGN
MAYAN CULTURE
CLASSIC PERIOD
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This heavily patinated eccentric is one of 26 that was found inside of the ceramic container pictured above. It's uniformly flaked on both sides and is one of the better crafted examples from this cache. The design is a crescent with outside wide-spaced serrations. The inside of the crescent was left with two projections rather than a smooth edge.  Most crescent shaped "eccentric flints" seem to have a smooth inside edge. Small specks of red pigment, that may be cinnabar, can be seen on this eccentric (if you enlarge the picture). This eccentric measures 3 9/16 inches (9.1 cm) long.

   More than 100 stone tool workshops have been recorded at Colha in northern Belize. The size of some of these mounds of lithic debris measure almost 100 feet (30 m) across and 5 feet 1.5 m) deep.

Stylized scorpion Mayan eccentric. Mayan eccentric centipede design.
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MAYAN ECCENTRICS
STYLIZED SCORPION AND CENTIPEDE DESIGNS
FROM A CACHE OF 26 "ECCENTRIC FLINTS"
MAYAN CULTURE
CLASSIC PERIOD
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   These two eccentrics are classified as animal forms. The one of the left is a stylized effigy of a scorpion. Scorpions are one of the more common forms of Mayan eccentric designs. This one measures 3 7/8 inches (9.8 cm) long.
   The eccentric on the right represents a centipede. The edge serrations form the legs and pincers. Excavations, in 1959-1963 at the Ruins of Altar de Sacrificios in the Dept. of Peten in Guatemala by the Peabody Museum, produced three centipede eccentrics. Two were bifacially flaked and the third was flaked only on one side or unifacial. They were found in datable features that were widely separated in time. One was dated to the Early Classic period and another was dated to the end of the Classic period. The one illustrated here measures 3 5/16 inches (8.4 cm) long.

   Stone artifacts manufactured at Colha were traded to many other Maya sites in northern Belize. Macro-blade daggers made at Colha have been found at Tikal and El Mirador in Guatemala.

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"REFERENCES"

1946, "The Ancient Maya," by Sylvanus G. Morley, page 436.
1965, "Prehistoric Maya Settlements in the Belize Valley," by Gordon R. Willey, William R. Bullard, john B. Glass & James C. Gifford, pp. 25-28, 421, 445-452.
1971, "The Maya," by Michael D. Coe, pp.149-150.
1972, "The Artifacts of Altar De Sacrificios," by Gordon R. Willey, pp181-219.
1972, "Excavations At Altar De Sacrificios," by A. Ledyard Smith, pp. 110-113, 204-211.
1978, "Teotihuacan, Tepeapulco, & Obsidian Exploitation," Science 200, by Thomas H. Charlton, pp. 1227-1236
1983, "Pulltrouser Swamp," Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize, 12. The Lithic Artifacts of the Pulltrouser Area: Settlements and Fields, by Harry J. Shafer, pp. 219-120.
1984, "Exploitation of Chert Resources by the Ancient Maya of Northern Belize, Central America," World Archaeology Vol. 16 No. 2, by Thomas R. Hester and Harry J. Shafer, pp. 157- 170.
1984, "Cenote of Sacrifice," edited by C. Chase Coggins & Orrin C. Shane.
1991, "Maya Artistry Unearthed," National Geographic, Sept. 1991, by William L. Fash, Jr. and Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle, pp. 94-105.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, The Flaked Cert Industry of Tikal, Guatemala, by Hattula Moholy-Nagy, pp., 197-199.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, Late Preclassic Formal Tool Production at Colha, Belize, by Harry J. Shafer pp. 31 &  38.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, Lithic Artifacts From Cerros, Belize: Production, Consumption, and Trade, by Beverly A. Mitchum pp. 45.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, "Structure and Dynamics of Intercommunity Exchange." by Patricia A. McAnany, pp. 271-272.
1993, "Elites, Eccentrics, and Empowerment in the Maya Area:" by Gyles Iannone & James M. Conlon, pp. 3-5.
1996, "The Oxford Companion To Archaeology", by Brian M. Fagan, pp. 406-415.
1997, "Craftsmen to the Kings," Rural Maya Stone Technology at Colha, Belize by Dr. Harry J. Shafer & Dr. Thomas R. Hester, page 6.
1998, "Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala: 1998 Field Season," by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 1& 2.
2001, "Northern Yucatan Obsidian Finds - Merida and Chichen Itza," Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., by Geoffrey E. Braswell, p. 1.

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