Obsidian Source Use in the Greater Yellowstone Area, Wyoming Basin, and Central Rocky Mountains

Abstract

Using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis from nearly 2,300 sourced obsidian artifacts in western Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho, we demonstrate regional diachronic changes in access to and preference for particular obsidian sources throughout the West. We focus on both (I) long-term patterns of obsidian use that may inform us about the timing of precontact migrations of Numic (Shoshone) speakers into the Rocky Mountains and (2) the extent to which later contact among Native inhabitants and European immigrants was a mechanism for reducing elements of precontact mobility and exchange in the postcontact era. We view indigenous responses to contact in the study area as an active, strategic process with measurable material consequences. Despite a well-documented increase in mobility among local Native groups as a result of the introduction of the horse, our study demonstrates a restriction and reduction in Historic period source use in western Wyoming. We propose that changes in obsidian source use are a reflection of ethnogenesis and development of ethnographic bands as a response to culture contact among indigenous inhabitants and with Europeans.

Single-Grain Optically Stimulated Luminescence Ages of Brownware Pottery in the Middle Rocky Mountains and the Spread of Numic Ceramic Technology

“…Their pilot study examined sherds from four sites in the Wyoming Basin and Absaroka Range to explore social interactions between resident Kukundika (i.e., Buffalo Eaters) and Tukudika (i.e., Sheep Eaters) bands, who occupied the two areas at contact (Hoebel 1938). While brownwares in these geologically distinct areas form discrete chemical and mineralogical groups, they show no evidence of pottery or people moving far beyond their source areas, a conclusion that supports recent regional syntheses of obsidian source analysis (Finley et al 2015; Scheiber and Finley 2011b). As part of a brownware materials characterization study, Ideker (2016) and Ideker and colleagues (2017) applied principles of SG-OSL to brownwares from several of these sites.…”

Cougar Creek: Quantitative Assessment of Obsidian Use in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

“…The low numbers of Late Prehistoric artifacts perhaps indicate a change in territorial movements and lithic material procurement in the last 1,500 years. Scheiber and Finley (2011), MacDonald and colleagues (2012), and Wunderlich (2014) note similar changes in Late Prehistoric material and land use that are worthy of further exploration but remain unresolved in the current article.…”

“…Baumler's (1997) study of 214 obsidian artifacts at Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, Montana (125 km northwest of Cougar Creek), did not identify any obsidians other than Obsidian Cliff, Bear Gulch, Malad, and Timber Butte. Scheiber and Finley's (2011) study of 1,129 lithics from sites in northwestern Wyoming, as well as 463 from sites in southwestern Montana, did not identify any artifacts produced from Cougar Creek obsidian. Finley and colleagues (2015) did not find any Cougar Creek obsidian in their analysis of 864 lithics in the Wyoming Basin area (southeast of Yellowstone).…”

“…Johnson and Reeves (2013) studied obsidian use by Native Americans during the Late Paleoindian period, while Sanders (2013) examined toolstone use in the Hayden Valley region of Yellowstone. Scheiber and Finley (2011) and Finley and colleagues (2015) analyzed lithic sourcing data in northwestern Wyoming and adjacent regions, while Reckin and Todd (2019) studied obsidian use in the Absaroka and Beartooth Ranges east of Yellowstone.…”

“…The article employs an organization of technology approach to better understand human and artifact movements through the landscape, following the lead of Schiffer (1972), Binford (1979), Gould and Saggers (1985), Nelson (1991), and Andrefsky (1994a, 1994b), among others (Eerkens et al 2008; Jones et al 2003; MacDonald 2014; Scheiber and Finley 2011). The goal is to follow artifacts through their life cycles from material procurement through tool production, use, discard, and recycling, in order to better understand human behavior relative to lithic technology (Shott 2018).…”