Excavations in the Classic Period apartment compound, site 33:S3W1, in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico, have revealed the existence of two lapidary workshops. These workshops were spatially discrete and separate from domestic quarters and were located on the periphery of the compound, but still inside it, in open courtyard areas with packed earth surfaces. A number of stone grinding tools and work surfaces initially identified these areas as lapidary workshops. This assessment was confirmed by microartifact analysis of associated soil samples which indicate that a number of different raw material classes were used in the lapidary production. All of these materials, with the exception of basalt, are imported from outside of the valley of Mexico. Differential use of raw materials is present and appears to be based on the value of the commodity. Basalt and slate are the most common materials used, with greenstone and shell being the scarcest. The volume of raw material debitage is much greater than would be required for local consumption by the compound, suggesting that the lapidary artifacts were produced for exchange in the market of Teotihuacan. The scale of production, however, does not appear to be large enough to indicate that these materials were produced for long-distance exchange.

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A total of 84 two-liter soil samples from Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) sites 17:S3E1, 18:S3E1, and the Street of the Dead excavations were fine-screened through 1-mm mesh and were sorted to retrieve tiny artifacts. The raw lapidary stone and marine shell material was then analyzed to assess the presence and intensity of artifact production. These data were also compared with the lapidary material of nearby 33:S3W1. A robust multicraft lapidary production was revealed. Sequins and stemmed trapezoid pendants were manufactured from slate, greenstone, marine shell, and mica, with slate being the predominant raw material being worked. A reduction sequence for slate sequins was developed based on the various shapes of slate materials that indicated the stages of production. Importantly, this lapidary craft production was not recognized from surface collections prior to excavation.