Prehistoric obsidian quarries in the western Great Basin show peak levels of use ca. 3150-1350 B.P. immediately followed by sharp declines in overall volume and a shift away from biface production. The models developed to explain this pattern either view quarry use as part of a trans-Sierra Nevada luxury exchange network with central and southern California populations as primary consumers, or as utilitarian toolstone procurement responding to western Great Basin settlement patterns and mobility. Obsidian hydration dates obtained on artifacts systematically collected from the Truman/Queen source demonstrates a history of use similar to other sources, suggesting that regional changes in western Great Basin obsidian quarry use was not the result of trans-Sierra Nevada exchange because Truman/Queen obsidian is virtually absent west of the Sierra Nevada. The results of this study also indicate that models that emphasize mobility as the primary conditioner of lithic technology are also inadequate. First order determinants of technology are most likely subsistence related and based on the ability of a specific tool form to contribute to subsistence return rates by reducing resource handling time. Differential mobility likely contributes to technology in a lesser way, affecting decisions regarding degrees of processing, such as biface stage, primary and secondary reduction loci, but not ultimately tool form.

This volume investigates the circumstances and conditions under which trade/exchange, direct access, and/or mobility best account for material conveyance across varying distances at different times in the past.

Reader of original synthesizing articles for introductory courses on archaeology and native peoples of California.

"This project is Shott's report on the extensive analysis of a large sample of flake debris and products from the Modena and Tempiute obsidian quarries in eastern Nevada. Archaeologists dealing with the mass of quarry material will find useful information about analyses of reduction, flake assemblages and preform data that should be transferrable to other quarry sites globally. Shott sought to "1) devise and implement efficient but rigorous (i.e. probabilistic) sample designs for spatially extensive, abundant quarry deposits; and 2) to test a behavioral-ecology model of the staging of resource use, the field-processing model (FPM)." However, data collection and initial analysis also required additional analyses be undertaken to appropriately address research questions. As a result, this manuscript details a "diverse and comprehensive set of methods to a large, systematically acquired dataset." It supports the conclusion that the Modena quarry was used by small groups though time"--

"This project is Shott's report on the extensive analysis of a large sample of flake debris and products from the Modena and Tempiute obsidian quarries in eastern Nevada. Archaeologists dealing with the mass of quarry material will find useful information about analyses of reduction, flake assemblages and preform data that should be transferrable to other quarry sites globally. Shott sought to "1) devise and implement efficient but rigorous (i.e. probabilistic) sample designs for spatially extensive, abundant quarry deposits; and 2) to test a behavioral-ecology model of the staging of resource use, the field-processing model (FPM)." However, data collection and initial analysis also required additional analyses be undertaken to appropriately address research questions. As a result, this manuscript details a "diverse and comprehensive set of methods to a large, systematically acquired dataset." It supports the conclusion that the Modena quarry was used by small groups though time"--