Geoarchaeology, Geochemical and Spatial Distributions of the Obsidian Source in Southern Mendoza (Argentina): The Case of Coche Quemado Source

MARÍA LAURA SALGÁN; G. NEME; SERGIO DIEGUEZ; POMPEI, M. P.; A. GIL

Washington DC

Encuentro; 83th Annual Meeting SAA; 2018

Society for American Archaeology

During the last twenty years, four primary obsidian sources have been recorded in southern Mendoza province. The archaeological record indicates that all were used from the Holocene until pre-hispanic times, however many obsidian artifacts still are assigned to unknown sources. Recent surveys allowed discovery a new obsidian source called Coche Quemado. It is located in the western margin of the lower basin of the Rio Grande, in the Mendoza Andean piedmont. The obsidian from the source appears as nodules of variable sizes and very good quality for the manufacture of tools. The nodules are part of a conglomerate that corresponds to the geological formation Agua de la piedra (Oligocene). In this paper, we present the spatial distribution of the source, the variety of the macroscopic characteristics of the raw material and current trends in the archaeological record. Seventeen samples were analyzed by INAA and XRF by the Archaeometry Laboratory at MURR. The results indicate that the Coche Quemado source has a different geochemical signal than all other sources in the region.