Ancient Maya Obsidian Trade along the Caribbean Coast: The Late Postclassic – Early Spanish Colonial Periods at San Pedro, Ambergris Caye -- Obsidian and the Sea: Evidence, Concepts and Social Implications of its Maritime Transportation
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With the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 16th century, the lives of the Maya living in what are today the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala were changed irrevocably. However, the impact of the Spanish incursion varied across the Maya Lowlands. In the southern portions of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and much of Belize, the establishment of Spanish reducciónes, the implementation of an encomienda labour system, and the creation of Catholic missions on the mainland were among the most significant changes of the colonizers on the indigenous Maya communities (Graham 1998, 2011; Jones 1998; Okoshi Harada 2006; Oland and Palka 2016; Quezada 1993; Restall 1997). However, along the Caribbean coast of Belize, the Spanish presence appears to have been comparatively minimal and the Maya who remained there managed to maintain many aspects of their traditional lifeways, including trade and exchange (Jones 1982; Stemp 2016; Stemp et al. 2011). Notably, trade in obsidian persisted along the coast from the Late Postclassic period into the Early Colonial period (600 – 300 BP). Continued access to obsidian was of vital importance to the Maya because, although some groups developed a copper-based technology by late Precolumbian times, metal objects were not widely adopted across the entire Maya area (Simmons et al. 2009; Simmons and Shugar 2013a, 2013b for Lowland Maya copper technology). Therefore, stone tools continued to play a critical role in everyday Maya life. Evidence from San Pedro, a small site on the limestone-based coral island of Ambergris Caye, Belize indicates the continued acquisition and use of obsidian well into the Early Colonial period. As an amorphous silicate of volcanic origin, obsidian was not a locally available resource in the lowland area, including on Ambergris Caye (see Braswell 2003; Stemp et al. 2011), and was traded over long distances from the Guatemalan highlands and central Mexico into the Maya Lowlands.
