Drs. Beck and Jones will conduct systematic research to evaluate the potential of the obsidian hydration technique to determine the ages of archaeological artifacts from the Butte Valley, Nevada. Obsidian hydration dating rests on the premise that the hydration rind which forms on this volcanic glass is time dependent and that by measuring the depth of this rim, chronological information can be obtained. While this relationship is known to hold true for buried artifacts which undergo only moderate temperature change throughout the course of the year, it is unclear how well hydration works for surface materials which undergo large annual fluctuations. Drs. Beck and Jones will collect obsidian artifacts associated with known cultures in the Butte Valley. They will then determine chemical composition by using x-ray florescence and, by this means, divide them by source of origin. Hydration analysis will be conducted on a large sample and the results analyzed to determine the correlation with age as determined by cultural affiliation. Temperature sensors planted at sites, both above and below ground, will provide information on annual temperature fluctuation. Across much of the U.S. Great Basin, archaeological materials which document the early stages of human prehistory are found primarily on the desert surface. These assemblages, while they have the potential to yield valuable archaeological information, must often be ignored because they are so difficult to date. If their research is successful, Drs. Beck and Jones will provide archaeologists with a technique which may be used in a wide range of sites in many parts of the world. It will also allow these two archaeologists to proceed with their cultural reconstruction of the prehistory of the Western United States and, thus, increase our understanding of native American cultural development.
