SUMMARY AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Identified from the sample of lithic material recovered during the 1999 field season was chert debitage mainly consisting of indeterminate flakes. A large percentage of these flakes were secondary indicating the possibility of a type of flake tool manufacturing method as opposed to full blown lithic production at Lamanai. Hinge fractures are also noted to be found, as is the case at Colha, and may indicate a shift during the Postclassic from a hard hammer to a soft hammer manufacturing technique. As far as formal tools are concerned, due to the low percentage of primary flakes and the hypothesis that tools are not formally produced at Lamanai, production of expedient flake tools are most likely produced from primary, secondary, and thinning flakes. Other formal tools identified include Early Postclassic dart points that have been hypothesized (Hester and Shafer 1991) to give way to lenticular bifaces in the latter years of the Early Postclassic. This theory could be tested as excavations continue at Lamanai.

Another typological distinction which may be discernable with further analysis is the recovery of small side notched arrowpoints that have a more elongated form than the more commonly found short triangular arrowpoints. Shafer and Hester (1988) have found the elongated arrowpoints at Santa Rita and discuss the possibility that they precede the short triangular arrowpoints. This too remains to be investigated further at Lamanai. And finally stemmed unifacial blades recovered may indicate a pattern of placement in caches from Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic elite residential offerings.

The analysis conducted here has provided some preliminary information on lithic production, tool types, and contextual information on lithic assemblages primarily dating from Terminal to Late Postclassic occupation at Lamanai in 1999. Despite the information obtained from this sample a good deal of work still remains to be conducted. It is possible that the majority of raw material for lithic production was acquired in the chert bearing zone located in Northern Belize (see Meadows this volume). Found within this zone is the site of Colha identified as a major tool production center. Further comparison of Lamanai lithics with that of Colha and other surrounding centers should allow typological and chronological distinctions to be discerned regarding ancient Maya production and consumption-not only during the end of the Classic through the Postclassic-but also for earlier and later time periods.

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