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Mesoamerican Origin for an Obsidian Scraper from the Precolumbian Southeastern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alex W. Barker ,
Craig E. Skinner ,
M. Steven Shackley ,
Michael D. Glascock  and
J. Daniel Rogers
Alex W. Barker
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 West Wells St., Milwaukee, WI 53233
Craig E. Skinner
Affiliation:
Northwest Research Obsidian Studies Laboratory, 1414 NW Polk, Corvallis, OR 97330
M. Steven Shackley
Affiliation:
Archaeological XRF Laboratory, Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 103 Kroeber Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3712
Michael D. Glascock
Affiliation:
Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211
J. Daniel Rogers
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, NHB 112, Washington, DC 20560-0112
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Abstract

EDXRF analysis of an obsidian scraper from the Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma, shows that the source material was from Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico. Given the distinctive peralkaline character of the obsidian, the source assignment is considered extremely secure. The artifact was recovered from the east tunnel of Craig Mound, Spiro, immediately after the cessation of commercial digging in 1935, and has been in the Smithsonian’s collections since 1937. Despite more than 150 years of speculation regarding supposed contact with and influence from the region, this represents the first documented example of Mesoamerican material from any Mississippian archaeological context in the Precolumbian southeastern United States.

Résumé

Résumé

El análisis EDXRF de un raspador de obsidiana de Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma, demuestra que el material es originario de Pachuca, Hidalgo, México. De acuerdo con el carácter peralcalino distintivo de la obsidiana, la identificación del lugar de origen de este material se considera muy segura. El artefacto fue recuperado en el túnel este de Craig Mound, Spiro, inmediatamente después de la terminatión de las excavaciones comerciales en el año de 1935, y hapermanecido en las colecciones del Instituto Smithsoniano desde 1937. Este representa el primer ejemplo documentado de material mesoamericano que proviene de los contextos arqueológicos del sureste precolombino de los Estados Unidos, a pesar de más de 150 años de especulación acerca del supuesto contacto e influencia de esta región.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , January 2002 , pp. 103 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2002

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