The University of Arizona Press
Obsidian, Second Edition
Advances in Geological and Archaeological Obsidian Studies in the North American Southwest
Archaeological obsidian studies in the American Southwest and beyond have significantly matured in the last two decades. Like ceramic analysis, obsidian artifact analysis has become a key factor in many archaeological projects because obsidian used to produce chipped stone tools is common across time periods in the Southwest—from Paleoindian through colonial periods. Even today, making stone tools from obsidian is used in teaching.
In the last twenty years, not only have the ways archaeologists use obsidian provenance to address twenty-first-century issues changed, but we now also see geologists and paleontologists using obsidian in ways never before imagined.
In the second edition of Obsidian, author M. Steven Shackley examines the newly discovered sources of archaeological obsidian and other volcanic rocks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. This work has aided in building new inferences concerning exchange, group interaction, and social networks: subjects that were only emerging twenty years ago in obsidian studies.
The field of obsidian provenance studies is truly international, linking archaeologists and geologists in the United States like never before. While the obsidian sources covered in this volume are regionally specific, the applications and methods used in the understanding of source recording, composition issues, and provenance are relevant worldwide.
“Steve Shackley has continued, throughout his career, to bring source provenance studies of obsidians and other volcanics to a point of real relevance in research about both Paleoindian and archaic mobile hunter-gatherers, as well as about the formative-era farmer-foragers of New Mexico, Arizona, and beyond. The professional archaeological and geological communities owe Steve a great debt of gratitude for his generosity and determination in these endeavors, as they have helped expand our scientific understanding of prehistoric cultures in the wider American Southwest.”—Tristan Carter, McMaster University
“This is a terrific book, engagingly and accessibly written, yet underpinned by top-notch science, robust data, and years of experience. While focused on the North American Southwest, this text has much to inform those working in obsidian studies—and geoarchaeology more generally—worldwide.”—Robert D. Dello-Russo, director emeritus of the UNM Office of Contract Archaeology
