Abstract
The results of a study of obsidian hydration dating conducted in northern New Mexico demonstrate that for a high degree of temporal resolution, both precise depth provenience for artifacts and measurement of the mean exponential ground temperature at several depths in the site may be required. When dates for artifacts recovered from one site were calculated using thermal cell temperatures from a site that was 24 m higher in elevation and located only 1km away, the difference was on the order of 250–300 years. The difference between dates calculated using an effective hydration temperature estimated from air temperature data and the known dates for the sites was as large as 100 years in some cases.This study shows that the effect of using a precise depth of recovery in date calculations appears to decrease with depth and to be strongest in the first meter below the present ground surface. Effective hydration temperatures at one site varied by more than 3°C in the first meter. A change 1°C in the effective hydration temperature may have a significant effect on an obsidian hydration date.
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