Valle de Bonanza (Zacatecas, Mexico): Desert Varnish and Technology in a Surface Lithic Assemblage

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Valle de Bonanza (northeast of the Mexican state of Zacatecas) is a surface-only archaeological site located in a highly eroded desert landscape on the edges of a vast endorheic basin in Concepcion del Oro county. The site consists of a sand-and-dust surface affected by intensive deflation that caused the formation of a palimpsest of crudely made flaked stone artifacts belonging to a diversity of epochs and traditions. This study focuses on two lines of research: i) the technological analysis of the specimens in order to define the technical approaches and possible cultural affiliations; ii) the study of patinas present on the exterior of a large percentage of the sample. We observe at least two types of patina or desert varnish, which were presumably generated under different environmental and depositional conditions. Considering that all lithic specimens belonging to more recent recognizable traditions lack any sort of patina, we worked from the hypothesis that the varnish-covered specimens belonged to older periods presenting considerable differences between them both. In order to achieve these goals we employed certain microscopic and archaeometric techniques presented in this poster.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24952