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

the best example of this pattern, where almost all of the large, core-derived debitage in
the site was located in royal ritual contexts. The remainder of most small production
debitage was found in residential groups distantly located from the royal palace.
These patterns, described in detail in Chapter 7, not only suggest that kings were
interested in the process of chipped-stone production, but also that elaborate exchange
relationships existed between kings and knappers. At Piedras Negras obsidian blade-
cores may have been procured by royal groups through long-distance exchange and
distributed to the knapping oficio, and in return kings would receive fine prismatic blades
and eccentrics made from the large production debitage that are not in evidence in
household contexts throughout the city. Particular chert materials may have been treated
in similar ways, but perhaps involving access to the local chert source, which was located
below the acropolis and site center. Use-wear patterns throughout the site suggest that
biface-reduction flakes were valuable cutting tools, and that large deposits of biface-
reduction flakes in royal ritual contexts were not a waste disposal mechanism (compare
King and Potter [1995] and Moholy-Nagy [1997]).
Similar to the elite craft production of carved shells and mirror making outlined
by Inomata (2001) at Aguateca, the chipped-stone production may have been
ideologically loaded in its own right. Maintenance of their cultural and symbolic capital
(Bourdieu 1973) by restricting forms of knowledge to a particular family, or group of
artisans could have reinforced and reproduced the institution of knapper oficio over long
periods of time. Forms of knowledge associated with chipped-stone production could
have been guarded, but socially recognized as an important part of the living city. This is
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