Jeff Speakman and Travis Jones from CAIS analysed the artifacts using a technique called portable X-ray fluorescence. ![]() In 2014, members of the Archaeological Survey and Royal Alberta Museum gathered over 800 obsidian artifacts found in the province for geochemical work. By tracking the movement of obsidian, archaeologists can learn how pre-contact people in Alberta moved, traded, and interacted across Western North America ![]() For example, did you know that an obsidian scraper found near Fort McMurray was originally quarried by people in Wyoming? Or that a spear head from the Red Deer area that is roughly 10 000 years old is made of obsidian from central Idaho? Obsidian artifacts in Alberta have also been traced to volcanic sources in Alaska, Oregon, and across British Columbia. By drawing a line from an Alberta artifact back to its volcanic origin, we can begin to reconstruct trade patterns, migration routes, and social networks across the continent. Members of the Alberta Obsidian Project would like to thank all the contributors who have made the initial year of the program a success.Įach volcanic outcrop of obsidian from Alaska to California has a distinct signature of chemical elements, so, archaeologists can compare the signatures of obsidian artifacts found in Alberta to volcanic outcrops in order to determine which volcano the obsidian came from. The current Alberta Obsidian Project (AOP) is the first large-scale attempt to analyse our province’s obsidian it began in 2014 when a research plan was developed by members of the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, the Royal Alberta Museum, and the Center of Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS) at the University of Georgia. Research on obsidian tools at archaeological sites in Alberta has been conducted on a small scale since the late 1980’s. This means that obsidian was traded or carried into Alberta from long distances away. Many obsidian tools have been found in Alberta despite the fact that there are no natural sources of it in the province. Obsidian is the sharpest naturally occurring substance on earth, which made it ideal for making tools such as arrowheads and knives that were designed to slice animal flesh. ![]() Obsidian is a natural glassy rock that was produced by volcanoes and used by pre-contact people across North America for making stone tools.
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