The upper Gila river gravels as an archaeological obsidian source region: Implications for models of exchange and interaction

✍ Scribed by M. Steven Shackley

• Book ID: 102844354
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 670 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0883-6353
• DOI: 10.1002/gea.3340070403

✦ Synopsis

Recent geoarchaeological research in the Upper Gila River region of southeastern Arizona indicates the presence of two geochemically distinct archaeological obsidians occurring as small secondarily deposited nodules within the Quaternary gravels and alluvium. Approximately 32% of the nodules recovered in the sample are derived from the known and reported Mule Creek source upstream in western New Mexico. The remaining 68% of the nodules recovered are derived from another source somewhere in the area, probably in the Tertiary silicic volcanics along the San Francisco drainage or the Upper Gila proper. Additionally, analyses of the Mule Creek primary source data indicates significant geochemical variability not previously indicated by energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) studies. The presence of Mule Creek glass 50 or more kilometers from the primary source bears significantly on distance to source based studies where secondary deposition is not accounted for.