GEOCHEMICAL AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PROJECTILE POINTS IN THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY, SOUTH TEXAS

We report the geochemical characterization of >500 projectile points from the Rio Grande Valley (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr & Zapata counties) using pXRF. This project is the beginning of an effort to collect data on the projectile points in the region and establish a database of geochemical characteristics. Points have been made available from museum and private collections. The statistical treatment of the data to identify geochemical types, such as the local El Sauz chert (Gonzalez et al., 2014), includes principle component analyses. Raw samples of RGV chert materials found as gravels in the Goliad and Uvalde Formations and modern river sediments are included in the analyses to test whether local sources can account for all the geochemical groups.