Provenance Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from 76 Draw, New Mexico

Summary

During the 13th and 14th Centuries, southern New Mexico was a borderland where the Medio period Casas Grandes, Salado, and El Paso phase cultures intersected. The complex cultural setting is illustrated by contemporaneous settlements associated with the various cultures in close proximity of each other. Recent research at 76 Draw, a large Medio period settlement near Demin, New Mexico, focused on understanding the nature and degree of interaction among the various cultures. We hope to contribute to this understanding by determining the chemical source of obsidian artifacts recovered from the site. Obsidian artifacts recovered from 76 Draw reflect several different sources, the most common of which are Mull Creek, Sierra Fresnal and Antelope Wells. We find that obsidian was transported from the Sierra Fresnal and Antelope Wells sources in a raw or preform state, but Mule Creek obsidian was likely introduced as finished, bifacial tools.

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

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage