Sourcing and Trade of Basalt and Turquoise to Petrified Forest National Park

Summary

This project seeks to understand how the basalt and turquoise found at Petrified Forest National Park fits into the trade networks of the Southwest. The procurement and subsequent movement of basalt and turquoise materials have been studied in the Southwest, but not at Petrified Forest National Park. Basalt axe heads, vesicular basalt pipes, and turquoise beads/pendants were recovered from multiple sites but no natural outcrops of either source have been found within the park boundaries. For this project, a sample of axes, pipes, pendants and beads found at Petrified Forest National Park were analyzed. The author used existing literature to classify the objects by material type and locate possible sources along previously known trade routes. The sites sampled range in age from BMII-PIV, which could indicate a steady incoming stream of materials through various trade routes over time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Recent Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park

Keywords

Spatial Coverage