Obsidian Networks of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeological record of Eastern Beringia (Alaska and Yukon) plays an important role in understanding global human dispersals and settlement and is a proving ground for testing ideas about high-latitude hunter-gatherer land use, technology, and socioeconomic interaction. Obsidian provenance studies provide an excellent means to address these issues. More than 60 geochemically distinct obsidian groups have been recognized throughout Eastern Beringia. Three of the most important sources—Wiki Peak, Mount Edziza, and Hoodoo Mountain—are confined within or are adjacent to the Yukon-Alaska borderlands and provide insights into people’s movements and interactions across major drainage systems and ecoregions through time. We describe these obsidian sources and patterns in their use based primarily on the stratified and well-dated record from the Little John site, which was first occupied ca. 14 Kya. We share insights from both Little John and the regional small site record to suggest (1) a rapid pace of landscape learning and identification of obsidian sources upon initial human colonization, (2) the strong influence raw material package size exerts on obsidian distribution, and (3) effects of volcanic eruptions on raw material procurement and transport.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40320.0