Archaeological Research Facility

The analysis here of 73 obsidian artifacts is one of the largest in the Superior (Picketpost Mountain) region, and the second assemblage from these sites (Shackley 2005, 2017). While the source provenance of the artifacts is diverse with sources from Government Mountain in northern Arizona, and Sonoran Desert sources (Sauceda Mountains and Vulture), but dominated by the nearby Superior (Picketpost Mountain) source as in the previous analysis (Tables 1 and 2). In this analysis a number of projectile points as well as bipolar cores from Superior and debitage was present. Most striking is that the projectile point assemblage, while diverse, does not reflect the diversity of sources present in the debitage analyzed earlier (Shackley 2017; see cover image here). A direct comparison between the projectile point obsidian provenance and the debitage could prove useful