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

5.5.2: Indirect-Percussion Notched Flake
These eccentrics would have been more difficult, physically and technically, to
produce than the pressure-notched flake type. Since this reduction technique requires
more force, thicker, wider, and less fragile flake-blanks were used. These eccentrics
usually are 12 cm or less in length. The flake of choice usually was an early- or middle-
stage, biface-thinning flake, or a nodule-reduction flake. The end result of the reduction
process was a relatively large eccentric, but with a cruder outline than the pressure-
notched type. This type features rather simplistic outlines, and had fewer naturalistic
forms, such as god silhouettes, and more symbolic or iconic forms (e.g., the double-
notched laurel leaf; Figure 5.10). Direct pressure-flaking was often used to smooth out
the contour of the margin. Replicative experimentation shows that indirect percussion
produces flakes that are wider, and scars that are deeper, than those made by pressure
(see Titmus and Woods 2003).
5.5.3: Partially-Worked Biface
This category is similar to the fully-worked biface eccentrics in that purely
symbolic or iconic forms usually were the intended product (Figure 5.11). The distinction
is important, however, because the partially-worked biface eccentrics are not as
symmetrical and have a crooked margin, which retains the curvature of the original flake
or blank. Biface reduction was carried out with a combination of percussion and pressure
techniques. The Maya may not have made a distinction between the fully worked and
partially worked biface-eccentrics, because they were often deposited together as though
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