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

inhabited up to the Kumche phase, and the complete abandonment of the site. All of the
dated samples of microcrystalline-quartz artifacts come from PN11 and PN46 and not
from PN54 (Figure 7.2). These operations are located on the top of the acropolis and
mostly represent small residential groups located outside of the monumental palace
architecture to the south. PN11 and PN54 did not yield any significant quantities of
microcrystalline-quartz production debitage (see Table 7.1), nor did they feature the full
range of debitage types. Patio 3 and PN54 do not appear to have been production areas
for microcrystalline-quartz goods. PN46, on the other hand, reveals a long history of
production activities. Although there is no firm production evidence for the Balche phase,
Yaxche, Chacalhaaz, and possibly Kumche phase deposits contain the full range of
production debris expected for microcrystalline-quartz biface manufacture. The
Chacalhaaz-phase evidence is the strongest, and includes a full complement of early-,
middle-, and late-stage biface-reduction flakes, nodule-reduction flakes, production
shatter, and hammerstone flakes. These production activities continued on this part of the
acropolis after the demise of Ruler 7 and beyond into Kumche times. This continuity
suggests that the residential groups of PN46 maintained the practice of chipped-stone
production for much of its history.
The second spatial grouping includes all of the nonacropolis residential groups
from the city center. The tested residential groups to the north of the acropolis were PN26
and PN41, but only PN41 revealed strong evidence of production activities. A low
number of flakes were found in Yaxche and Kumche deposits, but they do feature a
variety of production debitage. While the small Yaxche sample may be due to a lack of
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