Archaeological Research Facility

The analysis here of 526 artifacts (524 obsidian) from the Archaic sites (n=69 and East, Middle, and West Trench recovery (n=455) by the University of New Mexico at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon is similar to the provenance assemblage from previous studies with some important exceptions (see Shackley 2016; Tables 1 through 4 and Figures 1 through 4).  While the assemblage is expectably dominated by debitage and utilized flakes produced from Jemez Mountains sources, a number of projectile points, and some debitage, were produced from sources throughout the U.S. West, west, north northwest, and south, of Chaco Canyon, including one piece of debitage from the Wild Horse Canyon source in west Utah over 500 linear km northwest.  The obsidian source assemblage from the late sites is derived from a very different mix of sources than the earlier sites from the large study done for Tom Windes over 15 years ago (Shackley and Dillian 2000; see also Duff et al. 2012; Shackley 2016).  The Archaic artifacts are mainly produced from Jemez Mountains or Mount Taylor sources.