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

Shafer and Hester (1983) also created a widely used typology for chipped-stone
artifacts from Colhá, Belize. This typology was geared toward describing production
systems or industries at Colhá, but not with the secondary goal of comparing them to
lithic traditions from other regions of the lowlands. The nominal system was not
systematic, and the difference between a “celt axe” and a “large oval biface,” for
example, is not recorded in the type name. The large oval biface is actually smaller than
the celt axe, but retains a largely celtiform, or “petaloid” morphology. Other than trends
in outline, the main difference between the celt axe and the oval biface seems to be
thickness.
5.3: MORPHO-TECHNOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY AND VARIABILITY
The types presented here are more inclusive than those used in earlier typologies
(see Kidder 1947; Willey 1972). The goal is to exclude the variability caused by
resharpening and reworking (see Rovner 1976), but also skill level and raw material. The
desired effect of such a typology is to reveal socio-cultural patterns related to the practice
of stone tool producers, and to isolate technological, morphological, and stylistic
difference that can be attributed to ancient Maya knappers over time and through space.
More subtle morphological traits of chipped-stone tools, however, are sacrificed in this
framework in the hope that wider production patterns over time are revealed.
Another possible effect of the typology is that broader production traditions
passed down through generations of knappers can be isolated from consumer
modifications to stone tools after the initial production has taken place (see also
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