Uneven lithic landscapes: Raw material procurement and economic organization among the Late/Terminal Classic Maya in Western Belize

Examinations of landscape-level resources, particularly lithic raw material sources, are generally associated with hunter-gatherer and mobile societies; the distribution and source locations of such materials are used as proxies for mobility and territorial ranges. The variable locations of lithic raw material sources also affect sedentary societies, influencing the economic role of these materials and the administration of the raw material sources. This paper addresses the effect of uneven resource distributions across the landscape in sedentary societies, specifically the Late to Terminal Classic Maya (670-890 CE), through a case study of chert resources from the Mopan Valley, Belize. This paper discusses the role of the localness and commonality of lithic raw material sources in influencing individuals' access to source areas and involvement in lithic production, illustrating that not only the local or non-local nature of the source area, but also the frequency of source areas within a region, influence the economic organization of lithic resource extraction and production.