This research investigates whether various degrees of participation in large-scale stone-tool production created inequalities among households. She conducted research at the archaeological site of Took’ Witz, located near El Palmar in Campeche, Mexico. Took’ Witz was a small rural community with one of the largest stone tool industries in the Maya area. While the massive scale of production suggests many people made tools, it is not yet known how wealth was formed and distributed throughout the community. In this project, Kelsey examined whether disparities in wealth existed between households near stone tool workshops and those farther away. She conducted shovel testing and excavations of three plazuelas (i.e., households). In addition, she complemented field methods with laboratory testing including archaeobotanical analysis and AMS carbon dating. Funding from the archaeological Institute of America-OC Society enhanced this research by providing funding for soil chemistry analysis of plaza floors and midden contexts.

Kelsey J. Sullivan is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Anthropology. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Oregon (UO) in 2011. Following her B.A., she worked at the Coastal Archaeology and Archaeometry Laboratory, a branch of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at UO. Between 2015 and 2017, Kelsey completed her M.A. in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University. Her master’s thesis focused on caches of eccentric lithics from the Maya site of Xunantunich in Belize. Her archaeological work has focused on ritual and quotidian lithic technology. She has
worked on archaeological projects in Belize and Mexico, as well as the Great Basin, the Northern Channel Islands of California, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). Kelsey’s current research is in the hinterlands of the ancient Maya site of El Palmar in southeastern Campeche, where she examines the role of large-scale lithic production in community socioeconomic dynamics.