KEEP DIGGING — Katy Gregory participates in an archeological dig. | Courtesy photo
Katy Gregory of the Arkansas Archeological Survey will present “Analysis of Chert Artifacts from Residential Households at Mayapán, Yucatán, México” at the September meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society. This talk will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Hugo Room in the CIC Building at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.
A macroscopic analysis of the chert artifacts from several households at Mayapán, Yucatán, México was done to determine whether there were behavioral variations among the households. Mayapán was the Mayan capital in the northern Yucatán with a population in the tens of thousands during the Late Postclassic period (ca. AD 1200–1441).
In this presentation, Gregory describes results of two analyses: a general analysis of formal tools (bifaces and arrow points) made of chert, and an analysis of informal chert tools. The presence of behavioral variations provided evidence of the social organization at Mayapán and supports an interpretation of the precolumbian Yucatec Maya government as a segmentary state.
Gregory is the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s station assistant at Plum Bayou Mounds Archeological State Park. She received her undergraduate degree from Marquette University and her master’s degree from Florida Atlantic University.
The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia holds regular Archaeology Lab Days. Students and members of the public are invited to come by the research station in Proctor Hall on Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to learn more about archaeology in Arkansas. For more information, contact Clay Newton at 870-230-5463.