Perspectives on the Distribution of Obsidians in San Diego County, California

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Abstract
Artifact-to-source assignments were made on over 200 obsidian artifacts from San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, California, using non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis. In addition to providing new data on the spatial distributions of Obsidian Butte and Coso Hot Springs volcanic glasses in extreme southern California, results of the present study call into question the empirical utility of previous distance-decay models. Present data indicate that Coso Hot Springs obsidian was conveyed much more widely than previously believed. Previous predictions about the source-specific composition and percentage of obsidian in the entire chipped stone inventory in late prehistoric site assemblages in San Diego County were not sustained by observed empirical results.