A PRE-COLUMBIAN OBSIDIAN SOURCE IN SAN LUIS, HONDURAS

Abstract

Recent archaeological and geological surveys, combined with a neutron activation analysis, have located a new obsidian source in San Luis in the Department of Santa Bárbara of Western Honduras. From the Early Preclassic through Late Classic periods, the ancient inhabitants of the neighboring region of La Entrada acquired obsidian from San Luis and Source Y directly from outcrops and nearby streams in the form of small cobbles. These cobbles, due to their small size, were employed exclusively for the unspecialized production of percussion flakes, using a bipolar technique, for household consumption. Political boundaries played an important role in the distribution of certain imported commodities having a high exchange value: among others, Ixtepeque obsidian. It is our belief that political control over the distribution of Ixtepeque obsidian was confined more to smaller spatial configurations than to the suggested territorial political control of the segmentary states in the Maya lowlands. The distribution of goods with lower exchange values, such as the San Luis and Source Y obsidian, may have escaped political control. Small obsidian cobbles from San Luis and Source Y were apparently not distributed over long distances, but were rather essentially local resources.