Black and Blue, Red and Yellow: Clovis Exploitation of a Central New Mexico Lithic Source

Summary

Along the western edge of the Rio Grande Valley in Central New Mexico is a huge expanse of late Cenozoic volcanics, including a high-quality hydrothermally altered rhyolite. Colloquially known as Socorro jasper, at least one source of this material was exploited frequently by Clovis groups. This paper describes this source—the Black Canyon quarry—and the physical and geochemical properties of the "jasper" from it. Recent and continuing studies of its use by Clovis groups are reviewed, and its role in technological organization in central New Mexico is considered. The Mockingbird Gap site and the newly discovered Blue Canyon site reveal that Clovis groups practiced flexible strategies for procurement, reduction, transport, and consumption of this material. It is hypothesized that biotic and abiotic resource distribution and mobility strategies, in relation to the source location, appear to underlie this flexibility. The hypothesis is evaluated using these two sites, examining the composition of artifact assemblages of transported versus locally consumed Socorro jasper. Finally, comparisons are made with similar patterns of lithic source exploitation by Clovis foragers elsewhere in North America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20919