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

as jade (Kovacevich and Hruby 2005), may account for the intensive use of sumptuary
items made of mundane materials. It must be noted, however, that the majority of
microcrystalline-quartz debitage found at the site came from royal platform, burial, and
cache deposits. This pattern indicates that microcrystalline-quartz debitage had some
significant value to the ancient Maya of Piedras Negras, and that the economic value of
debitage from throughout the Maya Lowlands is largely unknown. The fact that
production debitage was such an important factor in burial and cache rituals, at Tikal for
example, suggests that the value and utility of production debitage is not well understood.
The dual role of production debitage, as a cutting and scraping tool and as a regal-ritual
offering, may reflect the social role of chipped-stone specialists during the Classic period
at Piedras Negras. Specialists in microcrystalline-quartz materials may have been
commissioned at certain times of the year to get involved in high-status rituals.
There was a shift in the technology of microcrystalline-quartz eccentrics that
accompanied the shift in obsidian eccentrics during the transition between the Yaxche
and Chacalhaaz phases. The increase in population, which accompanied this shift,
probably had an effect on the organization of craft production in the city. The
reorganization evident in the Chacalhaaz phase, however, was more pronounced in the
production of obsidian goods.
The production of obsidian and microcrystalline-quartz goods also often co-
occurred, suggesting that some of the craft specialists in these materials overlapped in
their expertise. The great differences in blade-core versus biface technology reveal that
crafters who did work in both materials must have been extremely skilled. The fact that
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