GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF LITHICS FROM THE PUNCHAW LAKE VILLAGE SITE (FiRs-1), NECHAKO PLATEAU, BRITISH COLUMBIA

In recent years much progress has been made in describing the petrology, chemical composition, origin and exchange of lithic artifacts from the BC Interior. This study adds information for the Punchaw Lake Village site (FiRs-1) located west of Quesnel, B.C., in the Nechako Plateau. Based on macroscopic observations of debitage, microscopic (petrographic descriptions) and whole sample geochemistry (major and trace elements by ICP ES and trace elements by ICP MS) of selected lithic waste fragments, there are three distinct "groups" of samples. The chemical data show that, as in the southern interior the lithic material of choice for tool manufacture was dacite/trachydacite. Exploratory statistics used to compare these samples with those previously described from the Southern Interior shows that 1) the three groups of samples from the Punchaw Lake Village site show as much chemical variation (between groups) as from all sites in the southern Interior, 2) the groups are all chemically distinct from those previously described from the southern Interior and 3) one group shows overall chemical similarities most similar to lithic fragments from the Arrow Stone Hills (Cache Creek), the most-northerly quarry site reported from the Southern Interior. The extent of chemical variation between Punchaw Lake Village site groups is consistent with sources from three different Tertiary cauldera sites, which would have been tens of km apart, but none of these quarry sites have been identified as yet. In contrast to previous studies that indicated that dacite lithics at a site tend to be from a single, local quarry, this study indicates multiple origins. One explanation for this is that the site was an important centre for exchange/commerce/and movement through the study area.