Obsidian Conveyance into Northwest Colorado

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Geographically, Northwestern Colorado sits in the confluence of several culture areas: Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, Great Plains, and Southwestern. Prehistoric peoples from these cultures have seasonally occupied Northwest Colorado since the Paleoindian Era and brought with them their technologies and materials. As obsidian does not naturally occur in this part of Colorado, we are given a hint of prehistoric mobility and conveyance of this material when it is found within the context of a site. Source provenance determinations made via X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of obsidian artifacts offer clues on how people came to Northwest Colorado. To date, obsidian artifacts sourced to over twenty quarries from Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico have been found on sites in this region. Using GIS based assessments, we are able to explore possible least-cost conveyance zones into Northwest Colorado from obsidian sources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53765