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Determining the Geological Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from the Maya Region: A Test of the Efficacy of Visual Sourcing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Geoffrey E. Braswell ,
John E. Clark ,
Kazuo Aoyama ,
Heather I. McKillop  and
Michael D. Glascock
Geoffrey E. Braswell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Amherst, NY 14261
John E. Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 950 SWKT, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602
Kazuo Aoyama
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities, Ibaraki University, Bunkyo 2-1- 1, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan
Heather I. McKillop
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Michael D. Glascock
Affiliation:
Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211
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Abstract

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During the last four decades, mesoamerican archaeologists regularly have employed various chemical assay techniques to determine the geological sources of obsidian artifacts. In recent years, the reliability of these analytical procedures has increased and their costs have declined, encouraging the assay of ever larger samples. Nonetheless, several constraints make it unlikely that compositional data will be used routinely to attribute entire collections to their geological sources. This report describes a test of visual sourcing, a technique that for many sites in the Maya region is only slightly less accurate than compositional assay. We also propose sampling strategies that combine visual and compositional sourcing in ways that allow large collections to be accurately sourced at low costs. Finally, we suggest ways to develop the technique for use throughout Latin America.

Resumen

Resumen

Durante las últimas décadas, arqueólogos mesoamericanos por lo general han empleado diversas técnicas químicas de análisis para determinar las fuentes geológicas de artefactos de obsidiana. En años recientes, se ha incrementado la confiabilidad de esta clase de procedimientos analíticos en tanto que su costo ha disminuido, de manera que se ha impulsado el análisis de muestras más grandes. No obstante, hay limitantes que vuelven poco probable que los datos composicionales se empleen en forma rutinaria para la atribución de colecciones completas a las fuentes geológicas de origen. En este reporte se describe una prueba del método visual de atribución, que es una técnica ligeramente menos precisa que los análsis composicionales en el caso de muchos sitios en la región maya. Además, proponemos estrategias de muestreo que combinan el método visual con los análisis composicionales, de manera que sea posible definir la fuente geológica de colecciones grandes a un bajo costo. Por último, proponemos medidas para desarrollar el uso de la técnica en toda Latinoamérica.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 269 - 282
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2000. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology

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