Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
As instruments suitable for the geochemical characterization of lithic raw materials have proliferated so too has the application of these methods to a larger number of types of stone. While the wider availability of these instruments holds promise for lithic characterization, this opportunity is not without hazards. As lithic sourcing studies move beyond the characterization of (relatively) geochemically homogenous materials such as obsidian, to include materials with more complex lithologies including coarse grained volcanic materials and silicious sedimentary rocks such as chert, a “one size fits all” approach will produce spurious results. This is not to suggest that the characterization of such materials is intractable, but rather that archaeologists must approach each material with methods and strategies appropriate to the geologic history of the material(s) being studied. This approach often requires close cooperation with geologists and geochemists. The presentations in the session highlight “geology first” approaches to lithic characterization through individual case studies demonstrating methods to successfully (or not) approach geologically complex raw materials.
Other Keywords
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis •
Material Culture and Technology •
Geoarchaeology •
Paleolithic •
Paleoindian and Paleoamerican •
Survey •
Cultural Resource Management •
Theory •
Flint •
Quarries
Geographic Keywords
North America: Northeast and Midatlantic •
French Republic (Country) •
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort (Country) •
Ireland (Country) •
Isle of Man (Country) •
Kingdom of Belgium (Country) •
Bailiwick of Guernsey (Country) •
Principality of Monaco (Country) •
Bailiwick of Jersey (Country) •
Kingdom of the Netherlands (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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Characterizing Spatial Variability of Chert to Inform Sampling Strategies (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sampling is crucial in characterizing variability in chert at a spatial scale meaningful for provenance data needed to explain prehistoric human behavior. Nearly four decades ago Barbara Luedtke examined the extent and kind of trace element variation in Burlington chert as a mechanism to determine sample size....
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Geology First, and Geochemistry Last (but Not Last) (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper I present my perspective, based on 25 years of fieldwork, on the importance of geologically based approaches to sourcing lithic raw materials. Examples are presented from geoarchaeological fieldwork in Maine, New York, Vermont, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Observing and sampling an outcrop in situ...
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Getting It Right for the Wrong Reasons: Using ED-XRF to Characterize Red Munsungun Chert (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Artifacts made of high-quality red chert appear regularly in terminal Pleistocene fluted point period sites throughout New England. Although archaeologists in the region often attribute this material to the Munsungun Lake geologic formation of northern Maine, no large-scale effort had been made to evaluate...
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“I've been havin' some hard travelin'. . .”: Using the “Evolutionary Chain” Concept in a Dynamical Approach of Silicites (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies about characterization and sourcing of the various siliceous materials (flint, chert, silcrete, and hydrothermal silicite) used by prehistoric foragers became progressively routine. However, simply locating the stratigraphic origin of a rock is insufficient as it may have been collected from varied...
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Intra-source Variability and Lithic Sourcing in East-Central Pennsylvania (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In eastern Pennsylvania, archaeologists have long used patterns of toolstone conveyance to define vast territories or trade networks that stretch across much of the Middle Atlantic. For example, the Late Archaic-Early Woodland lithic assemblage from the "KU Site" in east-central Pennsylvania purportedly...
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Lithic Procurement at Montlleó Open-Air Site (SW Europe): Tracing Past Human Routes (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Montlleó open-air-site (Prats i Sansor, Catalonia) is located in one of the largest high-attitude valleys in the Pyrenees, the Cerdanya Valley, in SW Europe, at 1,144 masl. The site is in a natural road to cross the Pyrenees in the eastern part. The site, discovered in 1998 and excavated since the 2000 by a...
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The More the Merrier: Using a Suite of Analytical Techniques to Arrive at Reliable Chert Ascription (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Determining the provenance of Florida cherts has been a major goal of archaeological researchers in the state for decades, and inquiry has largely focused on refining the existing petrographic and microscopic methods. When these methods of provenance were first developed, geochemical approaches using X-ray...
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The Multilayered Chert Sourcing Approach: An Analytical Technique for Chert and Flint Provenance Studies in Archaeology (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chipped stone tools present an excellent means for gaining a deeper understanding of prehistoric resource management. Successfully reconstructing past economic behavior, however, crucially depends on the ability to trace these materials back to their original sources. While techniques to source obsidian are...
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A Re-evaluation of Surface-Collected Projectile Points or Knives from the Poverty Point (16WC5) Site Using Reflectance Spectroscopy (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Nondestructive reflectance spectroscopy (VNIR-FTIR) was applied to 845 chert projectile points/knives (ppks) from the Poverty Point site (16WC5) in order to characterize the toolstone lithic networks utilized by the Late Archaic (4000–2500 BP) inhabitants of that site. This was the first systematic application...
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Scratching the Surface: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the South Mountain Metarhyolite Quarries (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The prehistoric quarries of South Mountain, the primary source for metarhyolite in Pennsylvania, are well-known for their importance as a lithic resource—especially in association to the Susquehanna Broadspear industry. While they are widely known, the quarries have not been studied intensively. This...