Leaving no stone unturned: Investigating Preclassic lithic production, consumption, and exchange at San Estevan, Belize and K'o and Hamontun, Guatemala

This dissertation investigates the relationship between economic and political complexity through the examination of chipped stone tool procurement, production, consumption, and exchange within Middle, Late, and Terminal Preclassic (1000 B.C.--250 A.D.) households across Maya lowland political centers. In this study, lithic chert tool and debitage assemblages were collected from midden deposits located at residential areas from the eastern Maya lowland center of San Estevan, located in northern Belize, and from K'o and Hamontun, located in northeastern Peten, Guatemala. During the Preclassic period, Maya centers transitioned from villages to urban centers with burgeoning, state-like institutions, but were also accompanied by widespread disturbances in economic and political structures towards the Terminal Preclassic period (150--250 A.D.). During this time, regional and inter-regional exchange networks expand through the Maya lowlands with an increase in the volume and diversity of exchanged goods. My evaluation of economic organization among these sites indicates that most households were incorporated within local chert exchange networks and were also integrated, but not dependent on, regional and long-distance exchange networks.;A bottom-up and top-down approach gauged each sites' household's lithic consumption and production activities. The bulk of local production and consumption was centered on household provisioning and multicrafting activities, while some residential groups at San Estevan and K'o provided evidence of specialized, part-time tool production that went beyond household provisioning and involved local economic networks. Through a comparison of lithic tool and debitage assemblages across two independent regions, this has allowed me to compare patterns of production and consumption at the household level and then interpret to what degree chipped-stone tools were controlled and/or consumed by powerful sociopolitical forces.