Phantom lithics at chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico

This chapter addresses one of the more interesting conundrums faced by the Pakbeh Regional Economy Program (PREP), which investigated the predominantly Early Classic lowland Maya site of Chunchucmil, Yucatán. Why, when it was the most accessible stone-cutting medium, was the number of artifacts made out of chert so low in all contexts, including domestic ones? Very low-quality chert, or what we call "silicified limestone," is seemingly everywhere on the karstic landscape, and high-quality chert can be found some 30 to 60 kilometers inland in the Puuc region. We propose that silicified limestone was the primary material used to make stone tools in northern Yucatán, but that preservation and other issues of archaeological collection techniques have left this material unrecognized.