Assessing Chert Source Representation at Early Paleoindian-Period Sites in the Northeast: A Multi-Pronged Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Methods and Applications to Chert Sourcing: Case Studies from Across the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study utilized a systematic, multi-pronged approach to assess lithic raw material representation at six large, early Paleoindian-period sites in the Great Lakes and New England-Maritimes regions. A wide-ranging comparative database of lithic sources from within and outside of the region was used to visually assess source representation at each site. In addition, a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) instrument was used to characterize lithic material, thereby providing a secondary line of evidence with which to evaluate the visual identifications. A small number of artifacts were also submitted for Neutron Activation Analysis. The results indicate that when the pXRF and visual analysis data are combined, they can provide a more confident and specific characterization of the lithic sources represented at each site, compared to the use of either data source by itself. This is especially true for the most commonly occurring lithic materials at each site, the identification of which was supported by both the geochemical and visual analyses.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Current Methods and Applications to Chert Sourcing: Case Studies from Across the Americas

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53447