Lithic Material Sources and Implications for Trade and Travel through the Smith River Basin in Northwest California

Summary

Excavations at the Hurdy Gurdy Bridge site (CA-DNO-1028) recovered a collection of lithic artifacts representing both local and exotic sources of material. Identification of both probable and definitive source locations indicates transportation of lithic material occurred from coastal, Klamath Mountains, south-central Oregon, and north-central California regions. Obsidian subjected to OH and XRF analysis from Hurdy Gurdy Bridge site along with sites located at the confluence of the Middle and South forks of the Smith River, (CA-DNO-89/H) and downstream from the confluence at Jedidiah Smith State Park (CA-DNO-26, CA-DNO-332, CA-DNO-333, CA-DNO334, and CA-DNO-XX13) confirms occupation of the region from the Early Holocene to the Contact period, and representation of the different lithic source locations varies through time. While the confluence sites have a nearly bivariate split between south-central Oregon and north-central California the obsidian from the Hurdy Gurdy Bridge site is almost entirely sourced from north-central California. This disparity, coupled with source locations of non-obsidian material, has implications regarding not only the settlement differences and external trade relationships between the Hurdy Gurdy Bridge site and the confluence sites, but also regional implications regarding trade, movement, and settlement between the interior and coastal regions.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times: Mobility and Subsistence in a Tale of Two Sites in the Smith River Basin of Northwestern California

Keywords

Spatial Coverage