Publication Date
Winter 2017
Abstract
An inventory and analysis of four lots of Native American artifacts within the James M. Collins Collection curated at Southern Methodist University reveals the research value of archaeological materials with less than perfect provenience information. All that is known about the origins of these artifacts is that they appear to have come from Oregon. Elemental analysis by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence identifies the most likely geochemical source for all of the obsidian artifacts in these lots. Source profiles identified from the 75 artifacts represent major sources located in southwestern Idaho. Similarly, the morphology of the artifacts is consistent with material from the northern Great Basin. Based on artifact morphology and the obsidian sources represented in the collection, we suspect these artifacts originally derive from far southeastern Oregon.
Document Type
Article
Keywords
X-ray fluorescence, obsidian, archaeological collections research
Disciplines
Archaeological Anthropology | Geochemistry
Source
Bulletin of the International Association of Obsidian Studies
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Graves, A. and M.T. Boulanger 2017 Inventory and Analysis of Some Obsidian Artifacts in the James M. Collins Collection. Bulletin of the International Association for Obsidian Studies 58(Winter): 24-37.
