Obsidian in the Casas Grandes world: Procurement, exchange, and interaction in Chihuahua, Mexico, CE 1200-1450
Abstract
The Casas Grandes area in Chihuahua, Mexico and the site of Paquime was the center of one the largest regional systems in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) during the Medio period (CE 1200-1450). People participated in local and distant exchange networks with groups in the SW/NW, Mesoamerica, and West Mexico. Our knowledge of which obsidian sources people used in Casas Grandes is limited, despite how obsidian could have derived from many different places. We examine how the use of specific obsidian sources may relate to broader political and economic relationships within the Casas Grandes regional system and its association with the Mimbres and Animas regions of the SW/NW. We sourced 116 artifacts using EDXRF spectrometry from four sites that neighbor Paquime. Results demonstrate people used obsidian from Chihuahua, Sonora, and New Mexico. Furthermore, there were varying levels of social interaction and regional integration because there is diversity in source use at the site level, and Casas Grandes were more connected to the Animas region than Mimbres regarding obsidian resource procurement.
- Authors:
-
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK (United States)
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
- Geoarchaeological XRF Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security (AU)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1345137
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-17-21520
Journal ID: ISSN 2352-409X
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 2352-409X
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; Earth Sciences; Obsidian, archaeology, Mexico
Citation Formats
Dolan, Sean Gregory, Whalen, Michael E., Minnis, Paul E., and Shackley, M. Steven. Obsidian in the Casas Grandes world: Procurement, exchange, and interaction in Chihuahua, Mexico, CE 1200-1450. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.040.
Dolan, Sean Gregory, Whalen, Michael E., Minnis, Paul E., & Shackley, M. Steven. Obsidian in the Casas Grandes world: Procurement, exchange, and interaction in Chihuahua, Mexico, CE 1200-1450. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.040
Dolan, Sean Gregory, Whalen, Michael E., Minnis, Paul E., and Shackley, M. Steven. Mon .
"Obsidian in the Casas Grandes world: Procurement, exchange, and interaction in Chihuahua, Mexico, CE 1200-1450". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.040. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1345137.
@article{osti_1345137,
title = {Obsidian in the Casas Grandes world: Procurement, exchange, and interaction in Chihuahua, Mexico, CE 1200-1450},
author = {Dolan, Sean Gregory and Whalen, Michael E. and Minnis, Paul E. and Shackley, M. Steven},
abstractNote = {The Casas Grandes area in Chihuahua, Mexico and the site of Paquime was the center of one the largest regional systems in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) during the Medio period (CE 1200-1450). People participated in local and distant exchange networks with groups in the SW/NW, Mesoamerica, and West Mexico. Our knowledge of which obsidian sources people used in Casas Grandes is limited, despite how obsidian could have derived from many different places. We examine how the use of specific obsidian sources may relate to broader political and economic relationships within the Casas Grandes regional system and its association with the Mimbres and Animas regions of the SW/NW. We sourced 116 artifacts using EDXRF spectrometry from four sites that neighbor Paquime. Results demonstrate people used obsidian from Chihuahua, Sonora, and New Mexico. Furthermore, there were varying levels of social interaction and regional integration because there is diversity in source use at the site level, and Casas Grandes were more connected to the Animas region than Mimbres regarding obsidian resource procurement.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.040},
journal = {Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports},
number = C,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Mon Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
Works referenced in this record:
The geological occurrence of lithic material and stone tool production strategies
journal, October 1994
- Andrefsky, William
- Geoarchaeology, Vol. 9, Issue 5
Obsidian Evidence of Interaction and Migration from the Mesa Verde Region, Southwest Colorado
journal, October 2011
- Arakawa, Fumiyasu; Ortman, Scott G.; Shackley, M. Steven
- American Antiquity, Vol. 76, Issue 4
Determining the Geological Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from the Maya Region: A Test of the Efficacy of Visual Sourcing
journal, September 2000
- Braswell, Geoffrey E.; Clark, John E.; Aoyama, Kazuo
- Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 11, Issue 3
Distribution and sources of obsidian in the Rio Grande gravels of New Mexico
journal, October 2000
- Church, Tim
- Geoarchaeology, Vol. 15, Issue 7
Ritual drinks in the pre-Hispanic US Southwest and Mexican Northwest
journal, September 2015
- Crown, Patricia L.; Gu, Jiyan; Hurst, W. Jeffrey
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 37
Autonomy and Regional Systems in the Late Prehistoric Southern Southwest
journal, April 1995
- Douglas, John E.
- American Antiquity, Vol. 60, Issue 2
Di Peso’s Concept of the Northern Sierra: Evidence from the Upper Bavispe Valley, Sonora, Mexico
journal, September 2005
- Douglas, John E.; Quijada, César A.
- Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 16, Issue 3
Patterning in procurement of obsidian in Chaco Canyon and in Chaco-era communities in New Mexico as revealed by X-ray fluorescence
journal, September 2012
- Duff, Andrew I.; Moss, Jeremy M.; Windes, Thomas C.
- Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 39, Issue 9
Implications for Migration and Social Connections in South-Central New Mexico Through Chemical Characterization of Carbon-Painted Ceramics and Obsidian
journal, January 2016
- Ferguson, Jeffrey R.; Laumbach, Karl W.; Lekson, Stephen H.
- KIVA, Vol. 82, Issue 1
Obsidian Source Characterization at las Colinas: Shifting Exchange Patterns During the Hohokam Sedentary - Classic Transition
journal, March 2012
- Fertelmes, Craig M.; Abbott, David R.; Shackley, M. Steven
- KIVA, Vol. 77, Issue 3
An Initial Examination of Prehistoric Obsidian Exchange in Hidalgo County New Mexico
journal, April 1980
- Findlow, Frank J.; Bolognese, Marisa
- KIVA, Vol. 45, Issue 3
Geochemistry of West-central Chihuahua Obsidian Nodules and Implications for the Derivation of Obsidian Artefacts
journal, October 1998
- Fralick, Philip W.; Stewart, Joe D.; MacWilliams, A. C.
- Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 25, Issue 10
Obsidian Procurement Among the Jumanos Pueblos, new Mexico, a. d. 1300–1670s
journal, September 2005
- Graves, William M.
- KIVA, Vol. 71, Issue 1
Scale and Time-Space Systematics in the Post-A.D. 1100 Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest
journal, January 1999
- Hegmon, Michelle; Nelson, Margaret C.; Anyon, Roger
- KIVA, Vol. 65, Issue 2
The Selene Obsidian Source (Formerly Sonora Unknown B) of the Upper Río Bavispe Basin, Sonora, Mexico
journal, December 2014
- Kibler, Karl W.; Hinojosa-Prieto, Héctor R.; Shackley, M. Steven
- KIVA, Vol. 80, Issue 2
The los Sitios del agua Obsidian Source (Formerly az Unknown a) and Recent Archaeological Investigations Along the rio Sonoyta, Northern Sonora
journal, June 2011
- Martynec, Richard J.; Davis, Rich; Steven Shackley, M.
- KIVA, Vol. 76, Issue 4
The Mesoamerican Connection in the Southwest
journal, December 1980
- McGuire, Randall H.
- KIVA, Vol. 46, Issue 1-2
Transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic US Southwest
journal, March 2013
- Mills, B. J.; Clark, J. J.; Peeples, M. A.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 15
Prehistoric Macaw Breeding in the North American Southwest
journal, April 1993
- Minnis, Paul E.; Whalen, Michael E.; Kelley, Jane H.
- American Antiquity, Vol. 58, Issue 2
Exchange economies of late prehistoric eastern Sonora, Mexico: A re-evaluation based on provenance data analyses
journal, July 2016
- Pailes, Matthew C.
- Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 41, Issue 5
Visual and geochemical analyses of obsidian source use at San Felipe Aztatán, Mexico
journal, December 2015
- Pierce, Daniel E.
- Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Vol. 40
The Pachuca obsidian source, Hidalgo, Mexico: A geoarchaeological perspective
journal, January 2003
- Ponomarenko, Alyson Lighthart
- Geoarchaeology, Vol. 19, Issue 1
Obsidian procurement, least cost path analysis, and social interaction in the Mimbres area of southwestern New Mexico
journal, March 2010
- Taliaferro, Matthew S.; Schriever, Bernard A.; Shackley, M. Steven
- Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 37, Issue 3
Flaked Stone and Social Interaction in the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
journal, June 2000
- VanPool, Todd L.; VanPool, Christine S.; Antillón, Rafael Cruz
- Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 11, Issue 2
Wealth, Status, Ritual, and Marine Shell at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico
journal, September 2013
- Whalen, Michael
- American Antiquity, Vol. 78, Issue 4
Ball Courts and Political Centralization in the Casas Grandes Region
journal, October 1996
- Whalen, Michael E.; Minnis, Paul E.
- American Antiquity, Vol. 61, Issue 4
The Casas Grandes Regional System: A Late Prehistoric Polity of Northwestern Mexico
journal, January 2001
- Whalen, Michael E.; Minnis, Paul E.
- Journal of World Prehistory, Vol. 15, Issue 3, p. 313-364
The Local and the Distant in the Origin of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico
journal, April 2003
- Whalen, Michael E.; Minnis, Paul E.
- American Antiquity, Vol. 68, Issue 2
Works referencing / citing this record:
Obsidian Provenance Data Reveals New Insights into Archaic Lifeways in Chihuahua, Mexico
journal, June 2019
- Dolan, Sean G.; Gallaga, Emiliano; Shackley, M. Steven
- Lithic Technology, Vol. 44, Issue 4