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

in some cases, be thoroughly chipped on one side. The one example from Piedras Negras
measures 2 cm long (Figure 5.8) and falls with in the viable size-range for an arrow point
(Rovner and Lewenstein 1997:27). It was made of a nonlocal chert, and was found in
Operation 41, which featured Terminal and Postclassic remains in the surface strata.
5.4.1.3.4: Small corner-notched biface (see Figure 5.2 #25). These bifaces, probably used
as dart or arrow points, seem to occur late in the archaeological record, and can be dated
mainly to the Postclassic period. None occur at Piedras Negras.
5.4.1.3.5: Small fishtail biface (see Figure 5.2 #26). This form is quite rare in the
Lowlands, except in the Pasión region with a few examples from Altar de Sacrificios.
They are likely the result of stem breakage, and subsequent reworking of the broken
biface, but this idea is untested. No examples of this form were found at Piedras Negras.
5.4.1.3.6: Small stemmed uniface (see Figure 5.2 #27). This type was made from a small
percussion- or pressure-blade. It is 8 cm or less in length. The proximal end of the blade
was chipped by pressure into a stem configuration.
Only two of these artifacts were found in general excavations at Piedras Negras, and both
were made of chert (or flint) prismatic, percussion blades. The existence of polyhedral,
blade-cores made from local microcrystalline-quartzes at Piedras Negras suggest that
these blades were produced locally. Examples from Belize were made from blades that
were produced from a blade core (see Shafer and Hester 1983), but not a polyhedral blade
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