The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

CHAPTER 4
LITHIC RESOURCES AND THE PIEDRAS NEGRAS SAMPLE
The two major material types discussed in this chapter are microcrystalline
quartzes and obsidian. However, there is much variation within each basic material type
and the goal of this chapter is to clarify these differences. I begin with a description of
microcrystalline quartzes used at Piedras Negras, and follow with a discussion of
obsidian sources.
4.1: MICROCRYSTALLINE-QUARTZ MATERIALS
The term microcrystalline quartz refers to siliceous stones that were formed
through sedimentary geological processes. Historically, cherts, flints, chalcedonies,
jaspers, and other microcrystalline quartzes have been characterized as either chert or
flint depending on the era and area of study (cf. Willey 1972; Shafer and Hester 1983).
Each material should be recognized as geologically distinct, but also analytically distinct,
because each material was reduced using a particular suite of chipped-stone technologies.
Nevertheless, microcrystalline quartz is still valuable as a material category, since these
individual sets of technologies are related by similar bifacial and unifacial reduction
strategies. Microcrystalline quartzes were reduced in ways that obsidian usually was not,
and they have different material properties, including their heightened toughness. The
formal variability and variety of microcrystalline-quartz bifacial and unifacial tools in the
Maya Lowlands requires a more systematic and broad typology than has been proposed
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