Obsidian in Early Woodland Contexts in the Upper Mississippi Valley

The purpose of this paper is to report the occurrence of obsidian artifacts from Early Woodland contexts in southwestern Wisconsin. During 1995 excavations at the Tillmont site (47CR460), seven obsidian flakes were recovered from a deeply buried paleosol in association with a virtually “pure” component of the Indian Isle phase, a local variant of the Early Woodland Marion Culture (Stoltman 1990:242–244). Geochemical analyses of four of the flakes confirm that Obsidian Cliff, Wyoming, was the source, demonstrating that this distinctive material was in use among Woodland peoples of the Midwest several centuries before the commencement of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.

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