Obsidian trade from El Chayal and Ixtepeque
Comercio de obsidiana de El Chayal e Ixtepeque
- Date
- c. 1000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- El Chayal, San José del Golfo, Guatemala
- Credited to
- Preclassic communities of the Guatemalan highlands; later Kaminaljuyú and other Maya centres
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The sources at El Chayal and Ixtepeque supplied obsidian to most of the Maya area for over two millennia for blades, lancets and points. The chemical fingerprint of each source lets archaeologists reconstruct exchange routes between the highlands and the lowlands.
Exploitation begins in the Early or Middle Preclassic; the date is indicative. Kaminaljuyú's control of the trade is a defended but debated interpretation.
What it led to
- long-distance exchange routes between the Maya highlands and lowlands
- specialised workshops producing prismatic blades
- geochemical sourcing of obsidian as a standard archaeological method