Lithic Procurement and Rock Varnish Dating: Investigations at CA-KER-140, A Small Quarry in the Western Mojave Desert

Summary

This document presents the results of data recovery investigations at CA-KER-140, a siliceous quarry in the Fremont Valley of the western Mojave Desert. These investigations involved two major research goals. The first goal was to better understand how the quarry was used, and what its role was in the prehistoric adaptive system of the valley. The second goal had to do with assessing a recently introduced dating technique, rock varnish cation-ratio analyses.

The data indicate that CA-KER-140 was not intensively exploited. Instead, the quarry appears to have been used primarily on an opportunistic, expedient basis; perhaps by sedentary or semi-sedentary populations that resided in nearby hamlets after about A.D. 500. Although some bifacial reduction is indicated at the quarry, most materials appear to have been only slightly reduced prior to off-site transport. The relatively poor quality of the CA-KER-140 chert, and the nearby availability of higher quality material, is probably responsible for the relatively low levels of exploitation.

Cation-ratio analysis of rock varnish from the site was undertaken to determine whether artifacts from CA-KER-140 could be dated using this relatively new technique. Cation-ratio analysis relies on chemical changes in rock varnish to date varnished lithic materials. Prior to attempting to date specific artifacts, we conducted a test to determine whether cation ratios are temporally patterned at CA-KER-140. Because our results indicate that cation ratios are not temporally patterned at CA-KER-140, we could not use cation ratios to date artifacts at the site. Our findings call into question the validity and accuracy of the varnish cation-ratio dating technique, particularly for assigning chronometric or relative ages to surface artifacts.

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): SRI Press

Contributor(s): Joan Oxendine; Julia Markabni; Eleanor Swenson; Sally Cunkelman; Pat Gordon; John Murray; Richard Norwood; Mark Sutton; Bruce Huckell; Steve Shelly; Mark Slaughter; Ron Towner; Julian Hayden; Kim Greene McClure; Eric Albright; Keith Vlastos; Carol Ellick; Susan Martin; Christina Curtis; Paul R. Bierman; Lee Fratt; Jeffrey Altschul

Project Director(s): Karen Harry

Landowner(s): Bureau of Land Management

Prepared By(s): Statistical Research, Inc.

Submitted To(s): Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management

Record Identifiers

Contract No.(s): N651-Cl-3016

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