Folsom obsidian conveyance at the Great Divide Paleoindian sites, Wyoming

Abstract

We present a study of obsidian artifacts found in Folsom contexts from the Great Divide Paleoindian sites (Great Divide Basin, Wyoming) to evaluate Paleoindian mobility patterns in the central and southern Rocky Mountains. Obsidian sourcing using pXRF demonstrates conveyance from Obsidian Cliff (400 km), Teton Pass (300 km), and the Green River/Engineer Quarry source. Other chipped stone raw materials from Folsom localities derive from sources in the upper Green River Basin, thus partially establishing a Folsom mobility pattern between the Yellowstone Plateau, upper Green River Basin, and Great Divide Basin of Wyoming. This study supports the notion that Paleoindians regularly transported lithic raw materials great distances even in relatively raw material rich regions like the interior of the Rocky Mountains and is further evidence for a sparsely documented Younger Dryas-aged use of the Yellowstone Plateau.

Keywords:

• Folsom
• obsidian
• Rocky Mountains
• Great Divide Basin
• Yellowstone Plateau

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Bureau of Land Management Rawlins Field Office, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments, and Pathfinder Ranches for facilitating research of the Great Divide Paleoindian sites. This work was conducted under BLM permit No. 019-WY-SR23. Thanks to volunteers Charles Koenig, Amanda Castaneda, Damian Kirkwood, Connor Johnen, Mckenna Litynski, and Alexandra Bitter.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We did not tabulate Area A flakes separately from the rest of 48SW20475, only its lithic concentration. The west side of 48SW20475 contained 93 total flakes, and the estimate of 70 flakes is based on field impressions that most flakes derived from the north end of the site.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the George C. Frison Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology and the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist.

Notes on contributors

Spencer R. Pelton

Spencer R. Pelton ([email protected]) is the Wyoming State Archaeologist, based out of the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Spencer’s research interests include the peopling of the Americas and human prehistory in the Rocky Mountains, among others.

Chase Mahan

Chase M. Mahan is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Wyoming in the Department of Anthropology. His research has primarily focused on Paleoindian archaeology in the North American Great Plains, tool-stone conveyance, and taphonomy. Currently, he is investigating Late-Pleistocene mobility and tool-stone use in the Wyoming Basin.

William E. Scoggin

William Scoggin. DDS, retired, avocational associate of the University of Wyoming, interests are all facets of High Plains archaeology.