Obsidian Procurement in the Northern Tiwa Homeland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative Archaeology at Picuris Pueblo: The New History" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We present results of a large-scale geochemical sourcing study of obsidian artifacts from Picuris Pueblo. We compare those results to obsidian-sourcing data from other sites on the Taos Plateau and in the Rio Chama basin. At Picuris Pueblo, almost all obsidian artifacts were produced on Valles Rhyolite or Cerro Toledo obsidian. Surprisingly, El Rechuelos obsidian is exceedingly rare. In contrast, assemblages from earlier sites on the Taos Plateau are predominantly El Rechuelos obsidian. We discuss the possibility that the arrival of Tewa-speaking migrants in the Rio Chama between the late thirteenth century and early fourteenth century effectively blocked access to El Rechuelos obsidian sources. This influx of immigrants into the Northern Rio Grande disrupted longstanding resource-procurement patterns and use of traditional landscapes for the people of Picuris Pueblo.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Collaborative Archaeology at Picuris Pueblo: The New History   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39515.0