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

quartz eccentrics from the two sites indicates a close relationship. If the quality of El
Chayal obsidian is any indicator of this relationship, as it may have been at Holmul, then
Piedras Negras should have relatively high percentages of fine quality obsidian.
Indeed, this appears to be the case.
Table 4.8 reveals that, although the sample is quite small, Early Classic (Naba
phase) obsidian was not of unusually high-quality, but that the Balche obsidians were
(37.5% of the total). The Balche phase is precisely when the Tikal-style obsidian-
eccentric tradition began in earnest at Piedras Negras. Non-El Chayal obsidians also
become more common in the Balche phase, which recalls the Early Classic situation at
La Sufricaya. The quality of the obsidian decreased during Yaxche and Chacalhaaz times,
as did the percentage of smoky-grey obsidian, but the quality remained much higher than
the Late Classic sample for Holmul. Braswell and Glascock (n.d.) characterized Tikal as
an “obsidian hub,” an assertion that may be further illustrated with an analysis of
obsidian quality at Tikal itself. It is possible that close political and economic ties with
Tikal could have garnered the recipient polity more, and higher quality, obsidian.
4.2.3: Overview of the Piedras Negras Obsidian Sample
Except for three examples bifaces made of Mexican obsidian, the majority of
obsidian artifacts at Piedras Negras were originally created through the process of blade-
core reduction. The obsidian eccentrics from Piedras Negras were made by further
modifying core-derived debitage (see Chapter 6). The larger debitage from the
preparation and rejuvenation of blade cores, especially during the Balche and Yaxche
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