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

sample, but exhausted cores, flakes, and blades allow for a reconstruction of the basic
blade-core technologies used at the site through time. Some of these technologies have
been replicated through experimentation by the author and by other lithic analysts (see
Clark and Bryant 1997; Flenniken and Hirth 2003; Hintzman 2000; Titmus and Clark
2003; Wilke 1996). Three basic blade-core reduction strategies that may have existed at
Piedras Negras can be characterized as (1) cylindrical or conical cores prepared by
percussion, which were reduced by pressure on one or more sides, but not in the round;
(2) cylindrical or conical cores prepared by percussion, which were reduced by pressure
in the round, or on all sides of the core; and (3) very small pressure-blade cores, which
were reduced in the round. Each of these strategies may roughly correspond to the three
types of exhausted cores found at Piedras Negras: exhausted “flat” cores (exhausted cores
of a lenticular cross section, which retain original percussion scars on one face; Figure
6.1, upper row), exhausted cylindrical cores (cores with a cylindrical cross section, which
were reduced by pressure on all sides; Figure 6.1, middle row), and small “bullet” or
microblade cores (cores with a length of 3 cm and less that were reduced by pressure on
all sides; Figure 6.1, lower row). However, the three reduction strategies can be carried
out using a myriad of blade-making techniques that may or may not reflect the actual
structure of pressure-blade industries at ancient Piedras Negras. Furthermore, none of
these cores were necessarily reduced in the round from the beginning of its reduction to
the end. In other words, while “flat” exhausted cores are direct evidence that cores were
not reduced in the round, cylindrical exhausted cores are not direct evidence that they
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