Geochemical Analysis of Felsite Quarries at Pluvial Lake Mojave

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Expanding Our Understanding of the Mojave Desert: Emerging Research and New Perspectives on Old Data" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study geochemically documents the conveyance of felsite from quarries in the Soda Mountains adjacent to pluvial Lake Mojave, California to the archaeological sites along its terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene (TP/EH) shorelines. Prior research suggests Paleoindians conveyed tool stone to Lake Mojave from the Coso Volcanic Field and Goldstone dacite outcrops to the northwest and Shoshone Mountain obsidian to the north, but little is known of the geochemical signatures or conveyance of the good quality, locally occurring felsite. I propose that a geochemically derived sourcing model using felsite artifacts from Lake Mojave’s TP/EH shoreline sites will improve my understanding of procurement strategies around Lake Mojave and across the region. To address this, I collected geologic samples from eight distinct felsite quarries and analyzed them with a pXRF instrument. Six quarries are in the Soda Mountains on the western edge of Lake Mojave (Soda Mountains West), another in the Soda Mountains to the north (Soda Mountains North), and one on the eastern shoreline of Lake Mojave. These three collection areas have geochemically distinct signatures, including some ability to identify artifacts to specific sources in Soda Mountains West, and together can be used to geochemically distinguish locally procured felsite artifacts around Lake Mojave.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Expanding Our Understanding of the Mojave Desert: Emerging Research and New Perspectives on Old Data

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39336.0