SOURCES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBSIDIAN IN THE GREATER AMERICAN SOUTHWEST - AN UPDATE AND QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS

Obsidian studies in the greater American Southwest have come of age. N o longer does the region lag behind other adjoining regions both in th e understanding of source provenance and the integration of obsidian s ource studies into regional designs. Most of the archaeological obsidi an sources discussed here were originally presented in semi-quantitati ve form in this journal in 1988 (Shackley 1988a). The purpose here is to present that same data in broadly useable quantitative form calibra ted to international standards, update the source descriptions when ap propriate, and, finally, present data on a few new sources recently lo cated This is a necessary step to continue the momentum of obsidian st udies in the region and make the information available to all. Finally , some discussion is directed toward the archaeological utility of obs idian studies in the region.