Mayan Eccentrics Page 6

PAGE 6 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
MAYAN ECCENTRICS
A.D. 150 TO A.D. 1400
(ECCENTRICS)
PAGE 6 OF 6 PAGES
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM

MAYANS TRANSPORTED GOODS ON THEIR
BACKS WHEN MANY OTHER CULTURES
WERE USING WHEELS.

     Maya society expended a huge amount of energy building a complicated network of roads. At least one is reported to be 100 km long. Many of these roads are elevated several feet high and as much as 18 meters wide. But there is no evidence that the ancient Maya people used wheels to transport goods. The only evidence for wheels are found in toys and possible stone rollers for smoothing road surfaces.
   The pictures above show a man in the Yucatan Peninsula carrying firewood in the traditional way on his back. The picture on the right was taken in 1906 in Shanghai, China and illustrates the use of a simple but efficient wheel system. The Mayan people didn't have pack animals to help carry heavy loads of stone and other materials and their canoes were only useful along waterways. Countless tons of stone was carried on the backs of bearers during the Classic Period to destinations throughout the Mayan civilization.
   In the "Oxford Companion To Archaeology, pp.406," Brian Fagan writes, "On his fourth voyage to the Americas in 1502, Christopher Columbus spotted a large oceangoing canoe in the Bay of Honduras. Traveling in the canoe were Mayan Men, women and children who were seated among a hefty cargo of cotton mantles, chocolate beans, razor sharp blades made of obsidian and chert, and containers of sweet honey produced by the stingless bee of the Yucatan Peninsula."
    Archaeological evidence from quarry sites show early reduction or shaping of the raw material to lighten the load before transporting it. In addition to this, Thomas H. Charlton (1978) uses the term "carrying site" to describe a location where they "occur along natural routes of foot travel and cluster in areas where the topography slows or blocks the movement of persons on foot." Carlton describes this as "load lightening behavior" when it occurs at locations where the trail becomes especially steep or difficult. The idea being, that in these locations, more material was discarded and further late stage reduction was occurring. But, evidently, Charlton's theory is yet unproven (McAnany 1991:272).

The suggestion from some of the cache numbers of 9 and 13 is intriguing. Especially since there are 13 heaven gods and 9 underworld gods. Fash and Fasquelle remark in their 1991 National Geographic article about the Copan cache that "The nine we found may correspond to the nine divine Maya lords of the night." But a study done by Iannone (1992a: 252-253) determined that "eccentrics are usually found in groups, although no set number recurs often enough to be deemed significant."

MAYAN OBSIDIAN CORE ECCENTRIC
STYLIZED ANIMAL FORM?
MAYA CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

This obsidian eccentric was made on a core, as have many other examples found to date. Several blade removals are evident on both sides. An exact copy of the one pictured is illustrated in the 1965 report "Prehistoric Maya Settlements in the Belize Valley." That one was discovered on the Barton Ramie site in a Mayan eccentric cache which included 10 obsidian cores that were side-notched (1 basally notched) plus 8 other more elaborate eccentrics made of chert. This example measures 3 15/16 inches (10 cm) long.
Unlike the black obsidian from central Mexico that has a green translucent tint, a large percentage of the obsidian that was traded into Belize is partly gray like the example pictured above. Braswell (2001:1) writes "Obsidian found in the northern Maya lowlands was imported from a limited number of sources in the Guatemalan and Mexican highlands."

One of the largest Mayan eccentric caches ever discovered was found in 1998 during archaeological excavations of a pyramid at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Houston (1998:1) writes "Almost immediately, workers struck one of the largest known caches in the Maya Lowlands, consisting of approximately 129 eccentrics." The cache contained 54 chert and 75 obsidian eccentrics. They are reported to have been in groupings of nine equivalent shapes.

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE
CACHE OF NINE MAYAN ECCENTRICS
MAYA CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

This group of nine eccentrics is reported to have been one cache. No two are alike and note that three of them are perforated. The holes may have been started from natural crystal cavities. All of them are made form the same red translucent stone. This material is most probably chalcedony. Shafer (1983:219) describes it as "a somewhat coarser (as opposed to cherts) crypto-crystalline material which occurs in translucent or semi-translucent nodules." He goes on to say "The nodular formation is different from that of the cherts, and the cortex is a lacelike white hydrated surface."

Some eccentric caches have been reported to have been "painted" with cinnabar. If you look at some of the enlarged images in this report you well see some red pigment adhering to the surface in small spots. It's interesting to note that cultures all around the world have been using red pigment in the form of red ochre to color ceremonial objects and burials. It fact, this practice dates to the days of the Neanderthals. The four sacred colors used by the Mayans on temples, pyramids and palaces are red, blue, yellow and green.

MAYAN ECCENTRIC
RING DESIGN WITH QUADRILATERAL HOLE
MAYA CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

This ring eccentric has a design in the center that looks like a four-leaf clover. One just like it is described from Altar of Sacrificios, Guatemala. Four ring eccentrics were found on that site. Willey (1972:184) explains "these are perfect circles or disks centrally perforated with circular holes. One exception to the latter is one hole that is quadrilateral rather than circular." This eccentric is made of red translucent chalcedony and measures 3 1/8 inches (8 cm) wide.

Although there is a lot we don't know about Mayan eccentrics there is quite a lot of information that is accepted. At the top of the list is the fact that eccentrics were important votive offerings used by the Maya elite. They are almost always found within ceremonial confines on larger Maya sites in association with structures like pyramids, temples, altars and stelaes. Another accepted fact is that there are many different types of eccentrics but overall they have a typology that shows there is a standardization that exists and the designs are not random. Eccentrics date from the Late Preclassic or Formative Period from A.D. 150-250 to the Late Postclassic Period A.D. 1200-1400 but were in use most consistently during the Classic Period A.D. 250-900. Eccentrics were produced by craft specialists even though the flaking quality is quite variable. Also, their production centered in the Maya lowlands.

MAYAN ECCENTRIC
ANIMAL FORM?
MAYA CULTURE
BELIZE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

This notched and serrated eccentric is from the above cache of nine. It appears as if its maker was copying some type of animal form. The back, legs and small head might represent some type of mammal form. It's made of translucent chalcedony and measures 3 7/8 inches (9.8 cm) long.

Mayan eccentrics have fascinated archaeologists and the public for a long time. In the past, descriptions of eccentrics mainly focused on their archaeological context and lithic analysis, which is fairly considerable now. Recently, a new direction of study seems to be turning to the question of how the images they represent may have related to the world of the Maya elite. But without a Rosetta Stone to decipher them, all the mystery that surrounds their precise meaning will probably never be known. One thing is for sure though, Mayan "eccentric flints" will be studied for as long as there is a human curiosity and archaeologists to study them.

"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.
Personal communication with Bob Patten.

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