BEYOND PRETTY COLORS: TECHNOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL QUALITIES OF OREGON OBSIDIANS FOR ANCIENT STONE TOOL PRODUCTION

Oregon obsidians are known for their variability in color, chatoyancy, and patterns of flow banding and phenocrysts. While these attributes make them attractive to modern rock collectors and lapidary workers, ancient aboriginal knappers prized more utilitarian attributes of the obsidians they selected for making stone tools. Shape, size, and durability of obsidian materials conditioned prehistoric tool manufacturing strategies and functional uses of obsidians. Archaeological analyses and replicative obsidian knapping experimentation reveal sophisticated materials science and engineering in ancient technologies. A case study in Paleoindian Clovis obsidian technology demonstrates some of the materials science principles employed by the ancients.