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

ifaced flakes and cores (Fig. 6.24). Similar to microcrystalline-quartz eccentrics,
obsidian eccentrics at Piedras Negras can be divided between naturalistic and purely
symbolic forms. Naturalistic forms often depict the silhouettes of particular gods, people,
and objects, while the symbolic forms appear to be iconic, such as a crescent or star
shape. Although various techniques were used to create both styles of eccentric, there do
appear to be some general correlations between technological type and symbolic type.
Each type corresponds to a particular time period, and these patterns are discussed in
Chapter 7.
6.4.1: Notched Blades and Flakes
As mentioned earlier, notched flake and blade eccentrics first appear at Piedras
Negras during the Early Classic period, and continued through to the collapse of the
dynasty in the early-to-middle ninth century. Their symbolic forms varied through time,
however, as did their frequency at any given moment during the Classic period. Notched
blade and flake eccentrics likely are the simplest, technologically speaking, to create.
There was little-to-no margin preparation and the final form was largely based on the
flake or blade morphology. The notching was done with a handheld pressure flaker and
usually was reduced unifacially (i.e., worked on only one face of the blank). In a few
cases, notches were created bifacially. This technique, however, requires a thorough
knowledge of blade-core technology and religious iconography, and thus cannot be
interpreted as an unspecialized form of craft production. The evidence for this is that
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