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Obsidian in Early Woodland Contexts in the Upper Mississippi Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James B. Stoltman  and
Richard E. Hughes
James B. Stoltman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (stoltman@wisc.edu)
Richard E. Hughes
Affiliation:
Geochemical Research Laboratory, 20 Portola Green Circle, Portola Valley, CA 94028 (rehughes@silcon.com)
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report the occurrence of obsidian artifacts from Early Woodland contexts in southwestern Wisconsin. During 1995 excavations at the Tillmont site (47CR460), seven obsidian flakes were recovered from a deeply buried paleosol in association with a virtually “pure” component of the Indian Isle phase, a local variant of the Early Woodland Marion Culture (Stoltman 1990:242–244). Geochemical analyses of four of the flakes confirm that Obsidian Cliff, Wyoming, was the source, demonstrating that this distinctive material was in use among Woodland peoples of the Midwest several centuries before the commencement of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.

Resumen

Resumen

El propósito de este artículo es proporcionar información sobre la presencia de artefactos de obsidiana en contextos del periodo Postarcaico “Bosque Temprano” (Early Woodland) en el suroeste del estado de Wisconsin. Durante excavaciones llevadas a cabo en el sitio de Tillmont (47CR460) en 1995, siete lascas de obsidiana fueron recuperadas en un paleosuelo profundo, en asociación con un componente virtualmente “puro” de la fase “Indian Isle,” una variante local de la cultura Marion (Stoltman 1990:242–244). Análisis geoquímicos de cuatro de las lascas confirman que la fuente de este material es Obsidian Cliff, en el estado de Wyoming, demostrando que este distintivo material volcánico era utilizado entre los indios Woodland del medio oeste de los Estados Unidos algunos siglos antes del inicio de la esfera de interacción conocida como “Hopewell.”

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 751 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

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