Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:49:00.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geochemical Analysis of Eight Red Ochres from Western North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jon M. Erlandson ,
J. D. Robertson  and
Christophe Descantes
Jon M. Erlandson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1218
J. D. Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506
Christophe Descantes
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1218
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, we report on our examination of the suitability of geochemical provenance studies on red ochre sources from western North America. We report geochemical data derived from PIXE (particle-induced X-ray emission) analysis of eight red ochre sources from California, Oregon, Wyoming, and Alaska. Our preliminary analysis of these red ochres, including multiple samples from one large deposit, suggests that the tested samples vary significantly between sources. It appears likely that the geochemical analysis of red ochres, widely used and traded among Native Americans and other ancient peoples around the world, could expand the range of materials used by archaeologists and other scholars to reconstruct past exchange and interaction systems.

Résumé

Résumé

Este artículo discute nuestra evaluación de los estudios de proveniencia geoquímica de lasfuentes de ocre rojo en Norte América occidental. Reportamos los resultados del análisis de ocho fuentes de ocre rojo en Alaska, California, Oregon, y Wyoming, incluyendo múltiples muestras de un depósito extenso. Los datos obtenidos por medio de la técnica PIXE (emisión de rayos X inducida por protones) indican que las muestras de diferentes fuentes varían significativamente. Es posible que el análisis geoquímica de ocre rojo, el cual fue utilizado ampliamente e intercambiado entre grupos nativo-americanos y otras poblaciones alrededor del mundo, podría expandir el rango de los materiales usados por arqueólogos y otros investigadores para reconstruir sistemas de intercambio e interacción pasados.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , July 1999 , pp. 517 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Allsworth-Jones, P. 1986 The Szeletian and the Transition from Middle to Upper Palaeloithic in Central Europe. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Basedow, H. 1925 The Australian Aboriginal. Preece and Sons, Adelaide.Google Scholar
Berndt, R. M., and Berndt, C. H. 1964 The World of the First Australians. Ure Smith, Sydney.Google Scholar
Bishop, R. L., and Neff, H. 1989 Compositional Data Analysis in Archaeology. In Archaeological Chemistry IV. Advances in Chemistry Series 222: 576–586, edited by Allen, R. O.. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Blanchard, L. J., Robertson, J. D., Srikantapura, S., and K., B. 1997. Hydrothermal Leaching of Trace Elements in Coal. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 221: 23–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bordes, F. 1972 A Tale of Two Caves. Random House, New York. Google Scholar
Breschini, G. S., Haversat, T., and Erlandson, J. 1996 California Radiocarbon Dates. Coyote Press, Salinas.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W. 1980 Comment on Wreschner. Current Anthropology 21: 635.Google Scholar
Dart, R. A., and Beaumont, P. 1967 Amazing Antiquity of Mining in Southern Africa. Nature 216: 407–08.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dart, R. A., and Beaumont, P. 1971 On a Further Radio Carbon Date for Ancient Mining in Southern Africa. South African Journal of Science 67(1): 10–11.Google Scholar
David, B., Clayton, E., and Watchman, A. 1993 Initial Results of PIXE Analysis on Northern Australian Ochres. Australian Archaeology 36: 50–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
deLumley, H. 1969 A Paleolithic Camp at Nice. Scientific American 220: 42–50.Google Scholar
Fagan, B. 1992 People of the Earth. 7th ed. Harper Collins, New York.Google Scholar
Flood, J. 1990 Archaeology of the Dreamtime: The Story of Prehistoric Australia and Its People. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1986 The Paleolithic Settlement of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Harbottle, G. 1982 Chemical Characterization in Archaeology. In Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange, edited by Ericson, J. E. and Earle, T.K. pp. 13–51. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heizer, R. E, and Treganza, A. E. 1972 Mines and Quarries of the Indians of California. Ballena Press, Ramona, California.Google Scholar
Howell, F. C. 1966 Observations of the Earlier Phases of the European Lower Paleolithic. American Anthropologist 68: 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. E. 1994 Intrasource Separation of Artifact-Quality Obsidians from the Casa Diablo Area, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 263–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. E., and Smith, R. L. 1993 Archaeology, Geology, and Geochemistry in Obsidian Provenance Studies. In Scale on Archaeological and Geoscientific Perspectives, edited by Stein, J. K. and R, A.. Linse. Special Paper 283: 79–91. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johansson, S. A .E., Campbell, J. L., and Malmqvist, K. G. 1995 Particle-InducedX-Ray Emission Spectrometry (PIXE). Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Leakey, L. B. 1958 Recent Discoveries at Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika. Nature 19: 1099–1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levey, M. 1966 The Medical Formulary or Agrabadh n of Al-Kind. Translated with a study of its Materia Medica by Levey, M.. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Marshack, A. 1979 Upper Paleolithic Symbol Systems of the Russian Plain: Cognitive and Comparative Analysis. Current Anthropology 20: 271–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A. 1981 On Paleolithic Ochre and the Early Uses of Color and Symbol. Current Anthropology 22: 188–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, J. A., Campbell, J.L., and Teesdale, W J. 1989 The Guelph PIXE Software Package. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B43: 218–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neff, H. (editor) 1992 Chemical Characterization of Ceramic Pastes in Archaeology. Monographs in World Archaeology 7. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Neff, H. 1994 RQ-Mode Principal Components Analysis of Ceramic Compositional Data. Archaeometry 36(1): 115–130.Google Scholar
Neff, H., Glascock, M. D., Bishop, R. L., and Blackman, M. J. 1996 An Assessment of the Acid-Extraction Approach to Compositional Characterization of Archaeological Ceramics. American Antiquity 61: 389–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peile, A. R. 1979 Colours that Cure. Hemisphere 23: 214–217.Google Scholar
Roper, D. C. 1991 A Comparison of Contexts of Red Ochre Use in Paleoindian and Upper Paleolithic Sites. North American Archaeologist 12: 289–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagonia, A. (editor) 1994 Bruising the Red Earth: Ochre Mining and Ritual in Aboriginal Tasmania. Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Schild, R. 1996 The North European Plain and Eastern Sub-Balticum between 12,700 and 8,000 B.P. In Humans at the End of the Ice Age: The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Tran sition, edited by Straus, L. G., Eriksen, B.V., Erlandson, J.M., and Yesner, D.R., pp. 129–157. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackley, M. S. 1988 Sources of Archaeological Obsidian in the Southwest: An Archaeological, Petrological, and Geochemical Study. American Antiquity 53: 752–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tankersley, K. B., Tankersley, K. O., Shaffer, N. R., Hess, M. D., Benz, J.S., Turner, R., Stafford, M.D., Zeimens, G.M., and Frison, G.C. 1995 They Have a Rock that Bleeds: Sunrise Red Ochre and its Early Paleoindian Occurrence at the Hell Gap Site, Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 40: 185–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velo, J. 1986 The Problem of Ochre. Mankind Quarterly 26(31): 229–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velo, J., and Kehoe, A. B. 1990 Red Ochre in the Paleolithic. In The Life of Symbols, edited by Foster, M. L. and Botscharow, L.J. pp. 101–111. Westview Press, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Villa, P. 1983 Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Southern France. Publications in Anthropology 13. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Wallace, W. J. 1947 An Aboriginal Hematite Quarry in Oakland, California. American Antiquity 12: 272–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigand, P. C, Harbottle, G., and Sayre, E. V. 1977 Turquoise Sources and Source Analysis: Mesoamerica and the Southwestern U.S.A. In Exchange Systems in Prehistory, edited by Earle, T. K. and Ericson, J.E. pp. 15–34. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein-Evron, M., and Hani, S. 1994 Provenance of Ochre in the Natufian Layers of el-Wad Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 461–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wreschner, E. E. 1980 Red Ochre and Human Evolution: A Case for Discussion. Current Anthropology 21: 631–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar