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

obsidian technologies differed from microcrystalline-quartz technologies for Yaxche
eccentrics, indicates that there may have been a division of labor during that time. The
florescence of bifacial technologies at the onset of Chacalhaaz times shows that there was
an overlap between craft specialists and specialties.
The restricted nature of the obsidian-debitage distribution, marked by obsidian
eccentrics in cache deposits, reveals that the royal family had a significant role of in some
aspect of the chipped-stone economy and organization of craft production at Piedras
Negras. That the royal family amassed relatively large quantities of debitage, but that it
was only one among many of producing households, suggests that it was able to employ
more than a few knappers in the manufacture of eccentrics and other materials for
ceremonial purposes.
Based on these patterns I offer a reconstruction of the production and exchange of
high-quality lithic materials. The relative rarity of obsidian and the lack of other prestige
goods and materials at Piedras Negras, suggests that the royal family likely was
responsible for the importation of obsidian cores, and possibly fine microcrystalline
quartzes, and then took it upon themselves to redistribute these materials to selected
households, especially during Yaxche times. In return, the royal family received
eccentrics, exhausted cores, and fine prismatic blades from producers. Secondarily, this
exchange system increased the prestige of all involved parties, maintaining social
structure and social cohesion at times by involving multiple households in the site in
royal caching activities. Thus, there was also a conversion of symbolic capital that
accompanied the exchange of material capital between social groups in the city. The
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