Central Oregon obsidian from a submerged early Holocene archaeological site beneath Lake Huron

Abstract

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.

Coastal archaeological site visibility problems and underwater prospects in the Northern Lake Superior Basin

“…Some archaeological features, furthermore, may be more immune to erosion by lake-level fluctuations due to their size. In Lake Huron, for example, 9000year-old hunting blinds, drive lanes, and other large features made from boulders and cobbles are remarkably intact (O'Shea et al, 2014(O'Shea et al, , 2021O'Shea & Meadows, 2009) despite later flooding and the lack of a protective cover of sediment.…”

“…In contrast, underwater archaeological sites (even ones in shallow water) may preserve aspects of the archaeological record, including organics and features, that are unavailable or simply less visible in terrestrial settings (Halligan et al, 2016; McLaren et al, 2018; O'Shea & Meadows, 2009). In Lake Huron, for example, O'Shea and Meadows (2009) report the discovery of ~9000‐year‐old caribou drive lanes, hunting blinds, and possible house structures under 20–40 m of water (O'Shea et al, 2014, 2021). In the northern LSB, the Houghton phase is the most likely time when similar sites may have been produced offshore because it is the lowest‐known level in the basin.…”

Obsidian Across the Americas

“…In total, four different pXRF devices have been housed in the EAF pXRF Laboratory, including an Innov-X, a Bruker TRAcER III-V, a Bruker TRAcER III-SD, and a Niton XL3t 950 GOLDD+. While these devices also have been used to study ceramics (Sharratt et al 2019;Williams et al 2012) and metals (Dussubieux and Walder 2015), a majority of the compositional studies utilizing the pXRF instruments in the EAF have focused on volcanic materials, such as basalt (Hastorf et al in press;Janusek and Williams 2016;Janusek et al 2012;Palumbo et al 2015;Williams et al 2015) and obsidian (Bélisle et al 2020;Feinman et al 2013Feinman et al , 2018Feinman et al , 2019aFeinman et al , 2019bGolitko and Feinman 2015;Golitko et al 2010Millhauser et al 2011Millhauser et al , 2015Moholy-Nagy et al 2013;O'Shea et al 2021;Riebe 2018Riebe , 2019Riebe , 2021Riebe et al 2018, in press;Ruka et al 2019).…”