This report examines 10,845 lithic artifacts from the rapidly abandoned city of Aguateca, Guatemala, to elucidate elite artistic and craft production in Classic Maya society. The methods used include high-power microwear analysis. The results suggest that significant numbers of Maya elite, both men and women, engaged in artistic creation and craft production, often working in both attached and independent contexts. The royal family and other elite households produced many artistic and craft items, including wood carvings and hide or leather goods. The scribe inhabiting Structure M8-8 carved stelae for the ruler, and the high-status courtier/scribe living in Structure M8-4 emphasized the production of shell and bone objects and other royal regalia in a courtly setting. Clearly, Aguateca was a center of part-time production of both utilitarian and luxury goods as well as of consumption. Classic Maya elite men and women artists/craft producers possessed multiple social identities and roles, which in turn implies a more flexible and integrated system of Classic Maya elite participating in attached and independent craft production more than is usually proposed.

Estudiamos 10.845 artefactos liticos provenientes de la ciudad de Aguateca, Guatemala, que fue rapidamente abandonada, con el fin de analizar la produccion artistica y artesanal de las elites en la sociedad maya clasica. Entre los metodos empleados se uso el analisis de microhuellas de uso de alta resolucion. Los resultados sugieren que una porcion significativa de la elite maya, tanto hombres como mujeres, se dedico a la creacion artistica y produccion artesanal, trabajando frecuentemente en contextos de produccion tanto dependiente como independiente. La familia real y otros grupos familiares de las elites produjeron muchas artesanias, incluyendo las de madera y cuero. El escribano de la Estructura M8-8 esculpio estelas para el gobernante, y el cortesano/escribano de alto rango de la Estructura M8-4 enfatizo la produccion de objetos de concha y hueso con alto valor simbolico real en la corte. Claramente, la ciudad de Aguateca fue un centro de produccion, de tiempo parcial, de bienes utilitarios y lujosos como de consumo. Los artistas/artesanos de las elites tuvieron multiples roles e identidades sociales, lo que implica la presencia de un sistema mas flexible e integrado en las elites mayas clasicas, con una mayor particapcion en la produccion dependiente e independiente que la usualmente propuesta.

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Studies of the organization of craft production and craft specialization are integral to a better understanding of daily activities, economic organization, political economy, technology, exchange, and the role of craft goods in social relations (Costin 2001). Inomata (2001:322) points out that craft specialization should be defined without reference to subsistence and proposes a useful definition of craft specialization ("production of alienable goods by a segment of the population for consumption outside the producers' own households") to facilitate comparison.

A critical dimension in the organizational context or political economy of craft production is the degree to which the artisans are attached to elite individuals or institutions rather than producing independently (Brumfiel and Earle 1987). Luxury items and weaponry for the social elite or governing...