Characterizing Spatial Variability of Chert to Inform Sampling Strategies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sampling is crucial in characterizing variability in chert at a spatial scale meaningful for provenance data needed to explain prehistoric human behavior. Nearly four decades ago Barbara Luedtke examined the extent and kind of trace element variation in Burlington chert as a mechanism to determine sample size. The current study quantifies the spectral variation within Dover chert to demonstrate that an understanding of variation in chert is necessary to ensure representativeness and characterization of the source. As the need for finer spatial resolution in chert source data increases, from determining formation type to a specific deposit, so should the number of geologic reference samples. In turn, if our ability to determine source becomes more precise, so should that of our anthropologic explanations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32542