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The Dome Fire Obsidian Study THE DOME FIRE OBSIDIAN STUDY: INVESTIGATING THE INTERACTION OF HEAT, HYDRATION, AND GLASS GEOCHEMISTRY BY ANASTASIA STEFFEN B.A., Anthropology, Washington University, 1986 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1992 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2005 ©2005, Anastasia Steffen iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Fred and Mary Trembour. You are my role models. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I acknowledge the strong intellectual guidance and partnership offered by my dissertation chair, Dr. Ann Ramenofsky. I thank the members of my committee, Lawrence Straus, Bruce Huckell, Ed Bedrick, and, especially, Richard Hughes, for all their contributions throughout this process. For their help from the Anthropology Department office, I thank Erika Gerety, Mary Rhodes, Carla Sarracino, and Yolanda Nieto. The fieldwork and labwork phases of this project would not have been possible without the help of Shawn Penman, Rachel Steffen, Phil LeTourneau, Ethan Geidraitus, Katerina Vaitkus, Gerry Raymond, and Tod Roberts. John Phillips provided excellent field and specimen photography. Help with GIS, software, and facilities was provided by Ken Cannon and Ralph Hartley of the Midwest Archaeological Center, Matt Dooley, and Jerry Gleason of the Bio-Optics Lab at U. of O. in Eugene. As with any interdisciplinary project, I benefited from technical assistance from individuals from a broad range of disciplines. I thank Richard Hughes (Geochemical Research Laboratory, Jamie Gardner and Fraser Goff (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Gordon Moore and Shawn Whaley (Arizona State University), Nelia Dunbar and Jim Barker (New Mexico Tech), H. R. Westrich and Ron Loehman (Sandia National Laboratory), Are Tsirk, and Robert L. Smith. Here at UNM, numerous people at the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department have been invaluable, especially Mike Splide, Gary Smith, John Husler, Chip Shearer, and Tobias Fischer. None of these generous folks are responsible for any errors I’ve made in my interpretations or applications. In the realm of obsidian and fire effects, several individuals have been a source of encouragement, inspiration and assistance, including Yuichi Nakazawa, Krista Deal, Tom Origer, Janine Loyd, Craig Skinner, Carol Winkler, and Ron Towner. Of course, everything I know about lithic technology I learned from Peter Ainsworth. Most of all, I thank Fred Trembour for his thoughtful advice, creativity, and willingness to nurture my interest in obsidian and heat. And I thank Mary Trembour for her support in Fred’s name, as well as the extraordinary spirit she has shared with me and my tribe. v This project was made possible by funding from the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program. Without the generous support of this fellowship program, I would never have been able to conduct the diverse analyses I was able to pursue. Thank you to Gary Machlis for leading this program. Additional funding and logistical support was provided by the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) Heritage Resources Program (which funded the pilot project), the SFNF Jemez District, the Valles Caldera National Preserve, Sigma Xi, and the Student Research Allocations Committee of the Graduate and Professional Student Association at UNM. Thank you to Mike Bremer, Rita Skinner, Phil Neff, John Peterson, Rory Gauthier, Cynthia Herhahn, Kay Beeley, Mike Elliott, and Steve Chomko. It takes a village to complete a dissertation and I am deeply grateful to all of my friends and family who have given me support along the way. Ann Ramenofsky has been more than just an advisor to me: she, along with her family Tom, Ben, and Kate, have provided fellowship and a sense of home for me along this long journey. Shawn Penman, Beth Bagwell, Beth Mohr, Phil LeTourneau, Jeremy Kulisheck, Kathy Helton, Jill Hazelton, and Rachel and Lora Steffen all helped to keep me going and in good cheer. Surely the best part of a hard project is to look back on it fondly. With Nathan, my partner in patience and joy, I look forward to now just looking back fondly as we get on with the rest of life. vi THE DOME FIRE OBSIDIAN STUDY: INVESTIGATING THE INTERACTION OF HEAT, HYDRATION, AND GLASS GEOCHEMISTRY BY ANASTASIA STEFFEN ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2005 THE DOME FIRE OBSIDIAN STUDY: INVESTIGATING THE INTERACTION OF HEAT, HYDRATION, AND GLASS GEOCHEMISTRY by Anastasia Steffen B.A., Anthropology, Washington University, 1986 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1992 Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2005 ABSTRACT This research integrates the analysis of obsidian geochemistry with investigation of the effects of forest fires on obsidian artifacts in surface assemblages. The first component of this project investigated the nature of heat altered obsidian at a prehistoric quarry site following the 1996 Dome Fire in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Burned artifacts were examined to discern indicators of heat alteration in obsidian and to measure the impact of the fire on obsidian hydration (OH) bands. Descriptive categories developed to encompass a range of fire effects are provided here as a tool for identifying heat-altered obsidian in archaeological contexts. Measurement of obsidian hydration in artifacts collected from across the site demonstrate substantial loss and alteration of OH information, as well as positive correlation of OH loss/alteration with degree of burn severity. The second component of the project investigated the role of obsidian geochemistry in fire effects, especially obsidian vesiculation. Intrasource and intersource geochemical analyses of obsidian trace element composition were integrated with analysis of major/minor elements, and with analysis of the water content as a volatile viii constituent. Results show elemental homogeneity among the Dome area Obsidian Ridge/Rabbit Mountain obsidians of the Cerro Toledo Rhyolite (CTR), demonstrate a cogenic relationship among geographically separate CTR deposits, and confirm that these obsidians are chemical distinct from Valles Rhyolite (VR) glasses at Cerro del Medio. Analyses of obsidian water content using loss-on-ignition (LOI) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) demonstrate the efficacy of both techniques for archaeological applications. Water contents were found to be low in VR samples, but high and variable in CTR samples. These results accord with the expectation of higher and more variable water contents in glasses from pyroclastic deposits, as compared with lower water contents in obsidians from extrusive volcanic contexts. This study provides a new example in which obsidian water content is high and variable within a single chemical type. This example provides support for the inclusion of water content as a compositional variable in the OH dating model and demonstrates the utility of integrating analysis of both elemental and volatile composition into archaeological practices of obsidian geochemical analyses. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xv LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... xix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 1.1. Organizational Structure of the Dissertation............................................................ 8 1.2. Hypotheses and Analytical Methods........................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................... 13 2.1. Study Area.............................................................................................................. 13 Study Area: Setting.................................................................................................... 13 Study Area: Geology ................................................................................................. 14 Study Area: Geology ................................................................................................. 15 Cerro Toledo Rhyolite in the Dome Area............................................................. 18 Cerro Toledo Rhyolite as a Larger Geologic Unit................................................ 19 Study Area: Archaeology at Capulin Quarry and the Dome Obsidian Quarries....... 21 Study Area: Environment and Fire History............................................................... 25 2.2. Research Context.................................................................................................... 28 History of Obsidian Fire Effects Research in Archaeology ...................................... 28 Issues in Obsidian Fire Effects Research in Archaeology......................................... 29 Types of Archaeological Studies of Forest Fire Effects on Obsidian ....................... 31 Review of Previous Results in Archaeological Obsidian Fire Effects Studies ......... 32 The Current Study in Research Context.................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3 OBSIDIAN FIRE EFFECTS..................................................................... 42 3.1.
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