For much of their history, prismatic blades were a relatively scarce item whose restricted
occurrence suggested they functioned as prestige or luxury items. Some time prior to the�…

Several unresolved issues of Mesoamerican prismatic blade manufacture concern the bit
used in the Aztec pressure tool, the importance of indirect percussion in blade production�…

HIS VOLUME ADDRESSES two simple but in1portant is-sues. The first was to identify
Yvhether variation existed in t11e technology used to manufacture Mesoamerican-style�…

This volume explores the social and economic processes involved in the manufacture of
obsidian prismatic blades, one of the sharpest cutting instruments ever produced in the�…

Recent analyses of primary documentary sources have demonstrated that Don Crabtree's
technique of prismatic blade manufacture differs significantly from that of the ancient�…

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While lithic studies in Mesoamerica have dealt thoroughly with the prismatic blade reduction
strategy and with heavily retouched specimens, little of interpretive value has been done�…

Artifacts from an obsidian-blade workshop dump from Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico, are
analyzed to determine levels of craftsmanship and craft specialization. Detailed�…

A technological typology for the description and analysis of Mesoamerican obsidian
industries is proposed, and its relative merits vis-�-vis Sheets's (1975a)“behavioral” typology�…

This chapter examines the organizational structures associated with the development of
specialized obsidian blade production in Mesoamerica. At the time of the Spanish Conquest�…