A Geochemical Analysis of Concave Base and Western Stemmed Tradition Projectile Points in Southeastern Oregon

Summary

The relationship between concave base and Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) projectile points in the Great Basin is not well-understood. They may represent sequential Late Pleistocene technologies, coeval technologies used by different ethnolinguistic populations, or different components within the same toolkits. To explore the latter possibility, I collected geochemical sourcing data for both types of artifacts recovered from three adjacent valleys in southeastern Oregon: (1) Warner Valley; (2) Guano Valley; and (3) Hawksy Walksy Valley. I compared source provenance to determine if there are significantly different toolstone conveyance patterns, with the expectation that there should be no differences if concave base and WST points were part of the same toolkit. The results provide insight into what the two Late Pleistocene technologies may tell us about how and when groups colonized the northern Great Basin.

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): 21034