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Sources of Archaeological Obsidian in the Southwest: An Archaeological, Petrological, and Geochemical Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

M. Steven Shackley
M. Steven Shackley*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, and Brian F. Mooney Associates, 9903-B Businesspark Avenue, San Diego, CA 92131
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Abstract

Comprehensive geochemical studies of archaeological obsidian sources in the Southwest typically have lagged behind other regions of North American and Mesoamerica. Current archaeological and petrological research indicates four previously unreported sources in Arizona, Sonora, and western New Mexico. This initial semiquantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) examination of archaeological silicic-glass sources in this region focuses on current technical problems in southwestern obsidian studies. The chemical variability within some regional obsidian sources appears to be relatively extensive and new data from the San Francisco volcanic field in northern Arizona modifies the results of earlier researchers.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , October 1988 , pp. 752 - 772
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1988

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References

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