PRACTICAL CLASSIFICATION OF STONE USED BY PRE-COLUMBIAN MAYA PEOPLE IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF MAYAPAN, YUCATAN PENINSULA, MEXICO

Different kinds of stone used in the last Maya capital city of Mayapán c. 1100 to 1450 AD were examined to develop a practical classification for communicating information about stone artifacts and architecture at this site. The Yucatán peninsula is a relatively flat, low-elevation terrain made of Cenozoic carbonates deposited on a broad, gently sloping ramp. Mayapán is in NW Yucatán, just inside the ring of cenotes (sinkholes) marking the rim of the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub impact crater.

Our work identified the following stone types, origins, and uses: 1) porous coquina limestone from shallow subtidal, low energy, relatively open settings; this most common rock type was used extensively for building blocks, lime production, grinding tools, and disk-shaped beehive covers; 2) medium- to coarse-grained calcarenite, a subtidal peloidal-skeletal (echinoids, mollusks, algae, ostracods) packstone-grainstone used for tools and sculptures; 3) well indurated (piedra dura), fine-grained, muddy, bioturbated, lagoonal peloidal-skeletal wackestone-packstone; commonly found as rounded pseudoclasts in extensively weathered limestone (sascab); used for grinding (grains, plaster, pigment), pounding (bark for paper), and smoothing (paper, plaster) tools; 4) friable sascab quarried in shallow pits (sascaberas) for fill; 5) terra rossa paleosol, including breccia, used as building blocks; 6) up to 5-6 cm thick, indurated calcrete or caliche crust, formed during subaerial exposure of limestone, used as building blocks with naturally flat surfaces; 7) sucrosic dolostone, interpreted as mixed zone dolomitization, used for grinding and abrading tools; 8) coarse crystalline fracture fill and speleothem limestone found rarely as tools; 9) chert nodules used to make cutting and scraping tools; other chert and obsidian tools are from the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico and Guatemala; and 10) Fe-oxide impregnated skeletal (foraminifera, algae, mollusks) packstone-grainstone formed by pedogenisis of marine limestone; ornamentally carved and reused building blocks, and small traded dishes made of Uxmal or Ticul stone from the Sierra de Ticul or Puuc Ridge. This extensive list reflects the resourceful and diverse use of locally available stone, with some examples of reuse and trade of externally sourced material.