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

ut some of them (N=34) were late-stage biface-reduction flakes, which were removed to
finish the bifaces. According the colors and textures of the flakes, it appears that
anywhere from 9 to 13 separate nodules were reduced for this deposit. It is unclear,
however, if the flakes were made especially for the deposit or were collected from a
random workshop area. The relatively small number of flakes indicates that they were not
deposited as an elaborate waste removal system (cf. Moholy-Nagy 1997), and that they
were instead interred for wholly symbolic purposes. The lack of small percussion and
pressure flakes in the tomb suggests that larger flakes were selected for the burial.
Aside from the lack of smaller flakes, which could have been placed elsewhere in
the tomb, a full range of biface-manufacture debitage is present in the deposit.
Architectural dedication deposits reflect a similar process whereby chunks and early-
stage reduction flakes of chert were placed underneath platform modifications, and
around cache vessels. Cache J-1-2, which probably dates to the Late Yaxche or Early
Chacalhaaz subphases, was almost certainly a dedication cache for the megalithic
stairway of the acropolis. The cache vessel contained obsidian, chert, jade, and shell
artifacts, similar to other vessel caches at Piedras Negras, but was surrounded by chunks
and small nodules of local chert. The presence of chert nodules and nodule fragments in
platform and stairway constructions also extends to the earlier Pyramid R-5. Underneath
the platform of R-5, Héctor Escobedo discovered a neatly spaced layer of chert nodules
and early-stage production debitage (i.e., chunks and nodule reduction flakes; Figure
7.26). These are the only known examples of chert nodules and production debitage
located in the architectural constructions of the site. The chert clearly came from the
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