Obsidian Use in Wyoming and the Concept of Curation

Abstract

The concept of curation has been extensively used in studies of the organization of flaked stone tool technology. This concept incorporates a wide range of strategies and behaviors that mobile huntergatherers would have employed under disparate conditions. The quality and availability of raw materials is one factor influencing how mobile hunter-gatherers manufactured, used, and transported flaked stone implements. Because obsidian can be sourced to at least general locales, the examination of obsidian use in locations at various distances from its source provides a means of understanding the role of distribution of raw materials. The results of x-ray fluorescence sourcing of 179 specimens from 18 excavated sites in V!Yoming and northern Colorado indicate that the most important sources were Obsidian Cliff, Bear Gulch, and Malad in eastern Idaho and northwest Wyoming, located approximately 115 to 700 km from the excavated sites. It appears that mobile hunter-gatherers inhabiting the sites nearest the obsidian sources brought blanks from the source to the site for further reduction. By exchange with groups encountered during their annual movements, the occupants of sites farther from the sources obtained completed tools that they conserved and maintained as individuals’ personal gear.