Reevaluating Florida’s Chert Quarry Clusters: An Update on Sampling Strategies, Methodological Approaches, and New Results from Northwest Florida

Summary

This paper presents preliminary results from an ongoing study of Coastal Plains chert from Florida. Past research has demonstrated that Florida cherts can be coarsely differentiated into various quarry clusters on the basis of microfossil inclusions, and more recent research has suggested that geochemically characterizing these cherts may further improve provenance determinations. New methodological approaches include using a combination of microfossil analysis, NAA, and LA-ICP-MS to provide accurate qualitative and quantitative descriptions for Florida cherts. Additionally, the sampling and description of previously unstudied prehistoric quarry sites is improving our understanding of the geochemical and microscopic variability inherent in Florida cherts. By intensively sampling both terrestrial and inundated sites on a cluster-by-cluster basis, our characterization resolution will be significantly enhanced on regional and local levels, and new conclusions can be drawn about past human mobility within an improved geographic and temporal framework. Current advances in chert provenance studies will form the core of future research on Paleoindian lithic technological organization in Florida, and using modern analytical techniques on new and existing collections will greatly benefit this research.

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): 21951