Heat Alteration of Red Munsungun Chert

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Red chert from the Munsungun Lake formation in northern Maine is found in late Pleistocene Fluted-Point period archaeological sites across northeastern North America. Despite its prevalence, there is no literature detailing the effects of heat alteration on red Munsungun chert. Here we report the effects of experimental heat alteration on red Munsungun chert. We conducted a controlled heat experiment in which flakes of chert were heated to specific temperature steps in a furnace. A campfire heat-alteration experiment was also conducted to determine how Munsungun chert reacts to open flame. We report that red Munsungun chert responds to heat at temperatures beyond 500°C. We also observed that some blackening occurs in flakes that are in close proximity to open flame. Interestingly, we observed in both the campfire and furnace experiments that red Munsungun chert breaks apart into two or more pieces in response to temperatures over 500°C. These results have many implications for the study of Pleistocene Fluted-Point period archaeological sites in northeastern North America. In particular, these results will help identify hearth-centered activity areas in the absence of preserved hearth features.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39525.0