Sentinel Butte: neutron activation analysis of White River Group chert from a primary source and artifacts from a Clovis cache in North Dakota, USA

Neutron activation analysis of 12,900-year-old stone artifacts confirms 450–510+ km Clovis tool-stone acquisition at Paleo Crossing (33ME274), northeast Ohio, U.S.A.

“…Virtually all raw-material identifications of Clovis tools continue to be based on qualitative descriptions of megascopic and macroscopic properties. The problem with this approach is that such properties alone are insufficient for discriminating among similar materials or for assigning specific provenance to materials if they occur in geographically widespread outcrops (Hoard et al, 1992;Huckell et al, 2011;Luedtke, 1979Luedtke, , 1992Speer, 2014). Further, the identification of a stone raw material based solely on the appearance of a specimen in hand is subjective and oftentimes difficult to verify.…”

A comparison of instrumental techniques at differentiating outcrops of Edwards Plateau chert at the local scale

“…INAA methods for chert and chert-like specimens have been described in sufficient detail elsewhere (Glascock, 2004:98-100;Huckell et al, 2011;Quigg et al, 2011). For the LA-ICP-MS analysis the following methods were used.…”

In the footsteps of Pliny: tracing the sources of Garamantian carnelian from Fazzan, south-west Libya

“…Valuable trace element concentrations were provided in a total of 20 archaeometric papers (Aspinall and Feather 1972;De Bruin et al, 1972;Luedtke 1978;Craddock et al, 1983;Hess 1996;Cackler et al, 1999;Nathan et al, 1999;Lyons et al, 2003;Glascock 2004;Insoll et al, 2004;Evans and Donahue 2005;Evans et al, 2007;Kasztovszky et al, 2008;Navazo et al, 2008;Huckell et al, 2011;Olofsson and Rodushkin 2011;Law et al, 2012;Pettitt et al, 2012;Pitblado et al, 2013;ten Bruggencate et al, 2013). After exclusion of those papers omitting data or including data that are incompatible because of instrumental protocols, it was possible to define a set of 12 papers reporting more than 1041 silica samples, including agate (80), chalcedony (11), chert (319), flint (189), opal (25) and quartzite (402).…”