Variation in Response to Heat-Treatment in Jasper from the Perkinsville Valley, Arizona

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The heat treatment of lithic raw material is a globally dispersed technology that improves the flaking quality of toolstone. While not all types of stone respond to heat treatment, many forms of microcrystalline silicates do, including jasper. Here, we aim to better understand how Perkinsville jasper responds to heat treatment. Perkinsville jasper occurs in the Perkinsville Valley of Yavapai County, Arizona, and was utilized prehistorically by the Prescott, Sinagua, and Hohokam cultures. For our study, we collected seven boulders of jasper off of private land (with permission) in Yavapai County. These boulders were flintknapped into 74 spalls that were subsequently heated in an electric kiln using 20 treatment protocols with systematically varying combinations of maximum temperature and maximum heating times. Afterward, we compared multiple quantitative and qualitative characteristics of unheated and heated flakes taken from the same nodule pre- and post-heat treatment. Our heating protocol allows us to determine an "optimal heating context" for Perkinsville jasper and to better understand how variation in time and temperature influences flaking quality of the stone. Lastly, this research develops an experimental reference dataset that can be used by other researchers studying raw material use and heat treatment in the US Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33237