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Maize And Stone A Functional Analysis Of The Manos And Metates Of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

The manos and metates of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize are analyzed to compare traditional maize-grinding types to the overall assemblage. A reciprocal, back-and-forth grinding motion is the most efficient way to process large amounts of maize. However, rotary movements are also associated with some ground stone implements. The number of flat and trough metates and two handed manos are compared to the rotary-motion basin and concave type metates and one-handed manos to determine predominance and distribution. Flat is the predominant type and, together with the trough type, these grinding stones make up the majority of metates at the site. Manos are highly fragmented, but the two-handed variety is more common among those fragments able to be identified. While this would at first glance support a fully maize dependent subsistence, the presence of two additional non-reciprocal motion metate types and the fact that the trough metates are clustered in one sector of the site suggest that, in addition to maize, significant processing of other foods also occurred in association with these grinding stones.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-2919
Date01 January 2011
CreatorsDuffy, Lisa Glynns
PublisherSTARS
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceElectronic Theses and Dissertations

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