Documenting Lithic Landscapes of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Summary

Archaeological lithic landscapes can encompass a broad range of geographic settings – local to regional – where lithic procurement activities by people have left indelible evidence of lithic resource use. The Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO), Arizona on the Colorado Plateau is best known for its massive exposure of late Triassic period petrified logs in the park. Petrified wood lithic debitage and tools dominate the lithic assemblages of prehistoric sites at the park. However, the park also includes large lithic pavements of chert cobbles and petrified wood chunks and gravels. Both petrified log concentrations and lithic pavements have not been documented during past archaeological surveys despite the ubiquity of debitage from lithic testing, reduction, and production activities, in part, because of the widespread spatial extent of the areas. Archaeological survey conducted at PEFO during the summers of 2013 and 2014 has incorporated lithic pavements, procurement areas, and scatters into the archaeological landscape of the park. Additionally, archaeologists have begun adding lithic procurement areas to previous surveyed areas. This poster presents an analysis of selected lithic pavement procurement areas at PEFO, their spatial extent, geological origins, water drainage associations, and attraction for human settlement especially among archaic and early farming populations.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage