I was checking out an article at texasbeyondhistory.net. Archaeologist were excavating a site called the Graham-Applegate site in the hill county. They found several obsidian flakes and traced those particular flakes all the way to Southwestern Utah using....chemical signature. Here's the paragraph and the link. Leonard and I have found obsidian flakes out at his place about 45 miles west of Ft. Worth.
Most of the tools, such as arrow points and knives, were made of chert (flint) but at least one inhabitant was in possession of a tool made from volcanic glass or obsidian, an exotic material for these parts. Three obsidian flakes recovered from a lithic workshop area have been tentatively traced, using their chemical signature, to an outcrop in southwestern Utah over a thousand miles from the Graham-Applegate site. http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/graham/index.html
Travis I have found obsidian up here in 3 different camps. I also have been finding some quartz lately, that has been worked. No quartz anywhere around here. I also have 3 alibates points and some alibates material. North Texas just really did not have the good working material that Central Texas has, so most of the good stuff was hauled in here from somewhere else.
I've kinda notice that too David. Back home in Wichita Falls, the archaic stuff isn't all flint. Alot of crude stuff. But the arrowpoints are flint and alibates flint. I guess as the years went there were more indians to trade with.
Hi Travis, In 1965, I dug up a killer medicine bowl which was shaped like half of an egg shell. It had drilled holes on the top edge (opposite each other), so that it could be strapped and worn like a necklace. It was made (honed) from a Black Granite with White Specks. After searching for the closest possible outcrop source, it was well into the Sonoran desert country of Northern Mexico, and a long ways from Austin, Tx. where it was found. I sold this item only about 2 years ago, and its new owner prizes it greatly.
Trav, back tracking the origins of non local materials is a great part of artifact finds but I'm going address the exact wording of your question...
"How far CAN flint travel?
At varying times throughout the country, there were HUNDREDS of different languages...Adjacent people HATED each other making it unsafe to travel or even wave across a river.
So I'm thinking that finding a non local item needed a very special set of circumstances or some very brave soul to get it there.
Part & parcel of that thought is the other side of the situation...." why didn't some resourses travel at all ? "
Couple weeks ago you remarked about finding a single pottery shard " that far west"......Mississippian / Caddo wares was revolutionary, should have swept the country like hula hoops..it didn't.
My favorite example is those beautifull and highly utilitarian Kerrville Knives... have got an incredibly small range...something that good ( just the idea ) should have swept the nation ...it didn't. ( I mean the hand fitting rounded base item, NOT the ugly crude choppers that has been in use since African days )
There are numerous other "reverse trade" examples, what a bunch of isolationalists so if you got an
imported item, it's a miracle
thanks everyone. time like these I wish they could have put there livelyhood down with words. good meeting of the elders. now... someone pass the pipe.
Mike, I have a gorget I dug up here in Austin County that is made of a similar material to the piece you described. Here's a photo of the piece; the rawhide cord was added later for aesthetic reasons.
Artifacts made from non-native material make up less than 1% of my collection.