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

surface of a nodule reduction flake was the usual locus of reduction. The ventral surface
of the flake-blank was not worked. The medium-sized examples are 12 cm to 8 cm long,
and the small-sized examples are below 8 cm in length.
There is a small sample of these artifacts from the site center, and also from the
near-periphery. Use-wear on these pieces indicates that they were used as scrapers, but
microscopic use-wear analysis is necessary to confirm it. These objects also may have
been placed in architectural façades or in large, stucco masks as “eye” elements. Larger
examples of this type were made from nodule decortication flakes of medium-grained
chert, and finished with direct, hard-hammer percussion. Smaller examples of this type
can best be described as discs. They usually are modified, biface-thinning flakes. Small,
circular unifaces were often deposited in pairs for burials, and likely were used as
costume or headdress elements. Very small microcrystalline quartz and obsidian, circular
unifaces could have also been figurine decorations.
5.4.1.3: Small artifacts (8 cm or less in length).
5.4.1.3.1: Small celtiform biface (see Figure 5.2 #22). This type was made from a small
nodule reduction flake or a large, biface-thinning flake. It was reduced by pressure, and
was finished with pressure. It was 8 cm or less in length. The distal end is wider than the
proximal end. A thin, lenticular cross section was the desired result of the reduction
process.
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