Recent Advances in Granite Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands

Abstract Used for common daily tasks, ground stone tools were vital to the functioning of pre-Columbian Maya households. Yet as an artifact class, ground stone has historically received little archaeological attention. Throughout the Eastern Maya Lowlands, ground stone tools were made of a variety of materials although granite was a preferred raw material. Granite is geographically restricted to three plutons, making it a prime candidate for geochemical sourcing studies. Fueled in part by advances in compositional techniques, as well as by new finds from traditional field archaeology, interest in the topic has blossomed over the past decade. This Compact Section explores many facets of the pre-Columbian Maya granite ground stone economy, from raw material acquisition to end of life discard, with the goal of disseminating the work of ongoing research projects. Ultimately, we aim to encourage more research on ground stone tools in general and granite in particular in Maya archaeology. Like other sister categories of artifacts, ground stone deserves requisite research attention to answer questions about where and how raw materials were acquired, how these objects were crafted, what distribution networks looked like, how they signify broader social meanings, and beyond.