Looking at High-Altitude Obsidian Use in the Great Basin

Summary

Until recently, most of what was known about the prehistoric use and conveyance of obsidian in the Great Basin was derived from analysis of time-sensitive artifacts recovered from caves and rockshelters. Over the past 35 years, however, archaeological research conducted in high-altitude settings has provided new insights about synchronic and diachronic patterning unique from many lowland assemblages. This paper will present the results of obsidian provenance analysis from sites in the White Mountains of central eastern California and sites atop Mt. Jefferson in central Nevada, highlighting similarities and differences between the temporal patterns in obsidian use identified in both areas.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Extreme Alpine Foraging: Explaining High Altitude Residences in the Great Basin   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage