Obsidian, originating from the Rocky Mountains and the West, was an exotic exchange commodity in Eastern North America that was often deposited in elaborate caches and burials associated with Middle Woodland era Hopewell and later complexes. In earlier times, obsidian is found only rarely. In this paper we report two obsidian flakes recovered from a now submerged paleolandscape beneath Lake Huron that are conclusively attributed to the Wagontire obsidian source in central Oregon; a distance of more than 4,000 km. These specimens, dating to ~ 9,000 BP, represent the earliest and most distant reported occurrence of obsidian in eastern North America.
Abstract:Investigations have been undertaken to assess the extent to which compositional analysis can be used to determine trade and interaction on the Great Hungarian Plain during the Late Neolithic. Ceramic and clay samples in the Körös and Berettyó River Basins were analyzed at the Elemental Analysis Facilities (EAF) at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL, USA. With the use of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), the aim of the project was to ascertain if micro-regional or site-specific compositional signatures could be determined in a region that is typically characterized as highly geologically homogenous. Identifying site-specific signatures enables archaeologists to model prehistoric interactions and, in turn, determine the relationship between interaction and various socio-cultural changes. This paper focuses on the preliminary compositional results of materials analyzed from three different sites across the Plain and the methodological implications for future anthropological research in the region.
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