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

organization at the end of the Yaxche phase is marked by a greater amount of obsidian
imported to the site, new technologies used to make eccentrics, and possibly more
competition between blade producers. Although new forms and reduction techniques
were introduced in the Chacalhaaz phase, the notched-flake tradition of the Yaxche phase
continued in a minor way up to the abandonment of the site. Thus, while socio-economic
changes occurred, some knappers maintained their long-standing production techniques.
There may be a symbolic pattern in Chacalhaaz phase eccentrics and also in
microcrystalline-quartz eccentrics, but these patterns have not yet been clarified. The fact
that K’awiil is the most common god associated with late-stage biface-thinning flakes in
microcrystalline materials suggests that symbolic patterns do exist. The deposition of
production debitage in royal burials and pyramid platforms indicates that the symbolism
and value of chipped-stone debitage is not well known at this time.
This systematic connection between production debitage and symbolic content
indicates that the production of obsidian blades, and possibly other types of chipped-
stone production, was a locus for ritualized or ideologically-loaded production.
Ideologically-loaded production probably increased the value of chipped-stone products,
but also the status of producers in Piedras Negras society. The slow development and
maintenance of the notched flake and core eccentrics, which led to the Yaxche obsidian
tradition, suggests that ideologically-loaded production may have been more of a doxic
practice at that time. An increase in population and the involvement of more obsidian-
blade producers in cache ceremonies led to a conflict of interests and competing
production-related ideologies. Those who produced alternative forms of eccentrics during
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