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

etween the two samples of obsidian eccentrics from Caches R-5-4 and R-5-6 is that the
column altar eccentrics are smaller than their substela counterparts (Figure 7.13). The
second is that the forms are not exactly the same. In most cases, however, the notching is
carried out at the same points of each corresponding flake or blade. The closest similarity
between the two groups actually involves the blades and flakes used to create each
corresponding form.
Figure 7.13 represents a comparison between the nine obsidian eccentrics in each
cache with numbered columns marking each distinct form. Based on a comparison with
other obsidian eccentrics from Piedras Negras and incised obsidians from the Central
Petén, notched obsidians from R-5-4 and R-5-6 appear to represent a series of god
effigies common to caches from both of these areas. Most common among the
represented gods and symbols are the lightning god, K’awiil, the Jester God of the Three-
Stone-Hearth, the sun and moon gods, the mat sign (pop), God C, and the Principal Bird
Deity. Certain gods also are repeated at Tikal as either standing or sitting and are thusly
repeated in each cache. Instead of full-body representations of gods, profile silhouettes of
their heads were notched into flakes at Piedras Negras--a pattern also found for notched,
microcrystalline-quartz eccentrics (Figure 7.14). Representations of the sun and moon are
not usually knapped as profiles but are left as either rounded discs or as notched
crescents. The symbolism of some notched obsidians, such as the double-notched blade
or laurel leaf form remain to be understood, but probably correlate to one of the common
gods represented on Tikal incised obsidians. The social function of these eccentrics is
difficult to determine, but their placement near monuments of calendrical importance
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