Archaeological Research Facility

The analysis here of sixobsidianartifacts fromtwo Formative Period sites near Kelvin, Arizona along the Gila River indicates that all the artifacts were produced from the Superior (Picketpost Mountain) source approximately 25 linear kilometers north of the sites, and the nearest obsidian source (see cover image, Table 1 and Figure 1). Superior obsidian is also available as secondary deposits in Queen Creek Quaternary alluvium at least as far as Florence Junction (Shackley 1988, 1995, 2005).