Determining the source of felsitic lithic material in southeastern New England using neodymium isotope ratios

Abstract

We introduce the use of Nd isotopes as a high-precision technique that can be used in conjunction with visual, petrographic, and trace element analyses to source indistinct felsitic debitage. This approach allows sourcing of debitage from southeastern New England, including samples that previously could not be constrained to one source. Combined with trace element data, isotopic data also provide the possibility of sourcing debitage to a particular quarry site within a volcanic complex, and even to a particular ash flow within a quarry site. Determining the origin of debitage so precisely is important for understanding acquisition, trade, and exchange networks in southeastern New England, where distances separating quarry sites within an individual volcanic complex (Lynn–Mattapan) are greater than distances between different volcanic complexes (Lynn–Mattapan, Blue Hill, and Wamsutta). The sourcing of debitage to Mattapan quarries suggests that Middle Archaic populations in the northwest part of the Boston Basin obtained nonlocal lithic material primarily from sources south of the basin. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.