The Pre-Columbian Obsidian Industry of El Chayal, Guatemala

Abstract

AbstractEl Chayal is an extensive obsidian workshop site in an area of major obsidian deposits northeast of Guatemala 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 Iztapan 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.