THE HOUSEHOLD FUNCTIONS OF OBSIDIAN TOOLS FROM THE EARLY–MIDDLE FORMATIVE VILLAGE OF ALTICA, MEXICO

Abstract

Abstract Functional determinations of stone tools gleaned through high-magnification usewear analysis enable archaeologists to reconstruct ancient household practices and identify diversity across regional domestic economies. A systematic obsidian usewear study with 300 specimens from the site of Altica, Mexico presented here reveals that tools from the Early–Middle Formative (1250–800 cal. b.c.) occupation were used for woodworking and subsistence-related activities. The high frequency of woodworking usewear patterns can be attributed to the construction and maintenance of the newly established settlement's households and agricultural plots. Combined with previous analyses of the site's paleoethnobotanical, osteological, and isotopic datasets, the usewear data further indicate a subsistence strategy that balanced foraging and non-intensive maize agriculture. Thanks to their proximity to the Otumba source and other sites exploiting it, Altica residents were able to employ a unifunctional tool-use approach with expedient percussion tools, which contrasts the multifunctional tool-use approaches documented at other Middle Formative sites.