Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:38:45.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obsidian Dating in California: Theory and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Clement W. Meighan
Clement W. Meighan*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A review of the obsidian hydration rates proposed for California obsidian sources raises questions of both practical and theoretical nature about the use of obsidian dating. Obsidian hydration rates so far proposed (primarily but not exclusively by Jonathon Ericson) require careful evaluation and checking against empirical data; routine use of the preliminary rates ignores cautions raised by the investigators and can lead to inaccurate chronological determinations. Used with discrimination, however, obsidian dating does yield chronological ages in which there can be a reasonable degree of confidence.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1983 , pp. 600 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Clark, Donovan L. 1964 Archaeological Chronology in California and the Obsidian Hydration Method. Annual Report, Archaeological Survey, 1963-64:139-230. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Dixon, L. E. 1969 Catalog of Obsidian Hydration Data for Mexico. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Ericson, Jonathon E. 1977 Prehistoric Exchange Systems in California: The Results of Obsidian Dating and Tracing. Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles. [Published 1981 in British Archaeological Reports, International Series. ]Google Scholar
Ericson, Jonathon E. 1978 Obsidian Hydration Dating in California. Occasional Papers in Method and Theory in California Archaeology: 2. Society for California Archaeology, Salinas.Google Scholar
Findlow, Frank J., Bennett, Victoria C., Ericson, J. E., and De Atley, Suzanne P. 1975 A New Obsidian Hydration Rate for Certain Obsidians in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 40:345-348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Irving 1968 Hydration Rind Dates Rhyolite Flows. Science 159:878–880.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friedman, Irving, and Smith, R. L. 1960 A New Dating Method Using Obsidian. I: The Development of the Method. American Antiquity 25:476–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimberlin, J. 1976 Obsidian Hydration Rate Determinations of Chemically Characterized Samples. In Advances in Obsidian Glass Studies, edited by Taylor, R. E., pp. 63–80. Noyes Press, Park Ridge, N. J. Google Scholar
Meighan, Clement W. 1970 Obsidian Hydration Rates. Science 170:99–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meighan, Clement W. 1978 Obsidian Dating of the Malibu Site. In Obsidian Dates II, A Compendium of the Obsidian Hydration Determinations Made at the UCLA Obsidian Hydration Laboratory, edited by Meighan, C. and Vanderhoeven, I. P., pp. 158–161. UCLA Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 6.Google Scholar
Meighan, Clement W., Foote, L. J., and Aiello, P. V. 1968 Obsidian Dating in West Mexican Archaeology. Science 160:1069–1075.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meighan, Clement W., and Haynes, C. Vance 1970 The Borax Lake Site Revisited. Science 167:1213–1221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, R. E. (editor) 1976 Advances in Obsidian Glass Studies. Noyes Press, Park Ridge, N. J. Google Scholar