Chipped Stone Production, Scavenging, and Trade in Spanish Colonial New Mexico: New Evidence From San Antonio del Embudo

Summary

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

Chipped stone is often found in archaeological deposits at 18th and 19th century settler villages of northern New Mexico, though there has been little critical assessment of settler traditions of lithic production and use. In this poster, we discuss an assemblage of over 500 chipped stone artifacts recovered from the small plaza site of San Antonio del Embudo. We examine the sources, geographical availability, tool and flake morphology, patterns of breakage, and tool-to-flake ratios to illuminate chipped stone practices during the Spanish Colonial, Mexican, and early American Territorial periods. We argue that the chalcedony artifacts in the assemblage were likely scavenged from a nearby 13th century site, while the obsidian points were obtained through colonial era trade networks. By contrast, the rhyolite and quartzite flakes indicate that Spanish settlers were engaging in limited on-site knapping, likely learned from their Indigenous neighbors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41700.0