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

area of the city. PN23 also appears to have been involved in production activities, but
according to dated deposits, these activities were restricted to the Yaxche and Chacalhaaz
phases.
Operation PN15 has been described as an elite residential group in the southern
area of the city. Poorly preserved ceramics made it difficult to date many of the
microcrystalline-quartz artifacts from this group, but the few flakes from Chacalhaaz
times suggest that production activities occurred there. One deposit excavated by Jackson
and the author (2001) yielded close to 4,000 small percussion flakes and pressure flakes.
Found relatively close to the surface, this secondary production dump suggests that small,
fine bifaces were produced and resharpened in this household group during Yaxche or
Chacalhaaz times. It is a unique deposit at the site, and may have been discovered as a
result of finer screening-techniques.
PN 57 and PN62 are located further from the city center in the southernmost
portion of the site (Figure 7.1). Although these residential groups were not thoroughly
excavated, it appears that microcrystalline-quartz tools were produced at a relatively great
distance from the site center. PN57 did not reveal evidence of production, but PN62
yielded the full range of microcrystalline-quartz production debris. Balche materials were
discovered in PN62, but the bulk of extant production evidence appears to be restricted to
the Chacalhaaz and Kumche phases. PN62 is among the partially excavated residential
groups that would most benefit our understanding of microcrystalline-quartz production
activities through further excavation.
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