CHIPPED STONE RAW MATERIALS AND THE STUDY OF INTERACTION

It is argued that chipped stone raw materials are equally, if not better, suited to the study of interaction than ceramics, which traditionally have provided the data base for such studies. Through examination of the entire range of raw materials represented in lithic assemblages, changes over time in interaction within a study area and between the study area and source locales can be documented.;Artifacts from 97 sites located by the 1975 survey of Peabody Coal's eastern lease area were visually compared with source samples and assigned to sources. These data were used to test culture change models in which an increase in interaction over time has been proposed as one of the causes for the ultimate abandonment of northern Black Mesa.;Results of cluster and factor analyses supported each other and demonstrated a dramatic shift from the almost exclusive use, during Basketmaker times, of a single locally available material, white baked siltstone, to the use of a wider variety of materials during Pueblo times, including a number of imported cherts, basalt, and obsidian. The abruptness of the shift lends credence to the argument that there was a gap in the occupation of northern Black Mesa sometime between A.D. 1 and A.D. 800. There also is support for seasonal occupation of the mesa during the early periods.;Development of exchange ties and/or rights of access and/or source location information for nonlocal materials progressed slowly, beginning with the individual appearance of materials from different sources at different sites. When combinations of nonlocal materials began to occur in sites, they first were of materials from distant sources located in the same direction, suggesting an orientation to ties with a specific area. Toward the end of the sequence, imports from all directions were combined with all others at sites, indicating an increased level of exchange among Black Mesa sites. At the very end of the sequence, when the system was breaking down and a reversion to hunting and gathering has been suggested, the significance of imports in the assemblages decreased and there was increased use of local materials again.;A source survey identified general source locales for 95% of the Black Mesa, Arizona, chipped stone raw materials. Descriptions of the raw materials and their source formations are provided, as are maps on which specific sources have been pinpointed. This source information should apply to much of northeastern Arizona and the Four Corners region because the same formations exist throughout.