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MAYAN ECCENTRICS
Pyramid banner----pyramid from Chichen Itza.
MAYA CULTURE
SOUTHERN MEXICO & NORTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA
LATE FORMATIVE PERIOD A.D. 150 TO
LATE POST CLASSIC PERIOD A.D. 1400
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COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM

Abstract banner showing Mayan eccentrics.

MAYAN ECCENTRICS
LATE PRE-CLASSIC TO LATE POSTCLASSIC PERIODS
SOUTHERN MEXICO & NORTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA

   This article illustrates and describes several examples of Mayan chipped stone artifacts called eccentrics or "eccentric flints." The artifacts illustrated here were borrowed from five different collections. The majority of them are believed to have come from sites in Belize.
   Eccentrics are non-utilitarian chipped stone objects that are normally found in caches within a ceremonial context associated with the Maya elite. They were made by craft specialists from various types of chert, chalcedony and obsidian. These mysterious objects were flaked into a large variety of animal and geometric forms but little is known of their meaning.

    "Perhaps the finest examples of this craft (flintknapping) that have come down to us are the exceedingly elaborate yet delicately chipped heads (Maya eccentrics) for ceremonial staffs"-----1946, Sylvanus G. Morely.
    "Eccentric flints are chipped flint objects of unusual, essentially non-utilitarian forms."
------1972, Gordon R. Willey
    "Eccentrics are large bifaces or macro-blades whose shapes conform to one of several symbol designs."------1991, Harry J. Shafer.
    "Chipped stone eccentrics, or symbolic-shaped stone artifacts, were one of the items manufactured in the Colha (Belize) workshops. These items were not used in daily life, but were used in ritual events."----
--1997, Harry J. Shafer & Thomas R. Hester.

Large stemmed and perforated Mayan eccentric.Large stemmed Mayan eccentric.

CLICK ON LEFT PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE
MAYAN ECCENTRICS FROM BELIZE
FLOYD RITTER COLLECTION

   These two eccentrics are larger than most examples. The one on the left is the larger of the two. It was found in northeastern Belize near the town of Altun Ha on a site also by that name. Elaborate perforated examples like this one have been discovered on other Maya sites. Variations on this design have extra notches on the edge and a wavy serpentine handle. This one is thin and very well flaked. It measures 8 1/8 inches (20.7 cm) long. The eccentric on the right is a couple of inches smaller and not quite as well flaked.
    Both of these eccentrics have one thing in common and that is the stem or handle. Eccentrics that are large enough to be mounted onto staffs and have "stems" like these two examples are sometimes referred to as staff-heads.

    "But the most exciting of all were nine "eccentric flints."----"Eccentric flints represent one of the rarest art forms of ancient Mesoamerica."-1991, William L. Fash, Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle. (National Geographic Mag., Sept., 1991)

Mayan banner with pyramids and eccentric flints.

MAYAN ECCENTRIC FLINTS

    The most spectacular discovery of Maya culture eccentrics ever found happened in 1989 by archaeologists William Fash and Ricardo Fasquelle. They made the discovery right at the end of their field season. During their excavation, while tunneling into a Maya temple pyramid on the Copan site in Honduras, they found a smaller temple buried within. In the temple's first chamber they found, ceremonial offerings of chert knives, a jade bead, sea shells and shark vertebras, and an extraordinary cache of nine very large eccentric flints (see Sept. 1991 issue of National Geographics pp. 94-103). They are by far the best Mayan eccentrics ever found during a scientific excavation. They are in fact some of the most skillfully made chipped stone artifacts ever found in the world. The human-like forms range in size to approximately 18inches (46 cm) or more in length and may represent or correspond to the nine divine Maya lords of the night. They date to around 600 A.D.

Mayan crab-claw eccentric flint.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE TRIPLE IMAGE

MAYAN ECCENTRIC
CRAB CLAW DESIGN
MAYA CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This very skillfully flaked eccentric was found in Belize. It seems to be made into the shape of a stylized effigy of a crab claw. It was made from Cohal chert and measures 4 inches (10.1 cm) long and 2 1/16 inches (5.2 cm) wide.

    The Mayan culture was producing "eccentric flints" for more than 1,000 years. On Late Preclassic workshops at Colha, Belize, eccentrics began to be made sometime around A.D. 150. They continued to be made at Colha and on other Maya sites in the lowland region into the Late Postclassic Period around A.D. 1400. But they were in use most consistently during the Classic Period A.D. 250-900.

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"REFERENCES"

1946, "The Ancient Maya," by Sylvanus G. Morley, page 436.
1965
, "Prehistoric Maya Settlements in the Belize Valley," by Gordon R. Willey, William R. Bullard, john B. Glass & James C. Gifford, pp. 25-28, 421, 445-452.
1971
, "The Maya," by Michael D. Coe, pp.149-150.
1972
, "The Artifacts of Altar De Sacrificios," by Gordon R. Willey, pp181-219.
1972
, "Excavations At Altar De Sacrificios," by A. Ledyard Smith, pp. 110-113, 204-211.
1978
, "Teotihuacan, Tepeapulco, & Obsidian Exploitation," Science 200, by Thomas H. Charlton, pp. 1227-1236
1983
, "Pulltrouser Swamp," Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize, 12. The Lithic Artifacts of the Pulltrouser Area: Settlements and Fields, by Harry J. Shafer, pp. 219-120.
1984
, "Exploitation of Chert Resources by the Ancient Maya of Northern Belize, Central America," World Archaeology Vol. 16 No. 2, by Thomas R. Hester and Harry J. Shafer, pp. 157- 170.
1984
, "Cenote of Sacrifice," edited by C. Chase Coggins & Orrin C. Shane.
1991
, "Maya Artistry Unearthed," National Geographic, Sept. 1991, by William L. Fash, Jr. and Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle, pp. 94-105.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, The Flaked Cert Industry of Tikal, Guatemala, by Hattula Moholy-Nagy, pp., 197-199.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, Late Preclassic Formal Tool Production at Colha, Belize, by Harry J. Shafer pp. 31 &  38.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, Lithic Artifacts From Cerros, Belize: Production, Consumption, and Trade, by Beverly A. Mitchum pp. 45.
1991, "Maya Stone Tools," Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, "Structure and Dynamics of Intercommunity Exchange." by Patricia A. McAnany, pp. 271-272.
1993, "Elites, Eccentrics, and Empowerment in the Maya Area:" by Gyles Iannone & James M. Conlon, pp. 3-5.
1996, "The Oxford Companion To Archaeology", by Brian M. Fagan, pp. 406-415.
1997, "Craftsmen to the Kings," Rural Maya Stone Technology at Colha, Belize by Dr.
Harry J. Shafer & Dr. Thomas R. Hester, page 6.
1998, "Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala: 1998 Field Season," by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 1& 2.
2001, "Northern Yucatan Obsidian Finds - Merida and Chichen Itza," Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., by Geoffrey E. Braswell, p. 1.

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