ABSTRACT
Lithic resources are stone materials used as raw material for the production of tools and utilitarian items, or used in ceremonial contexts or as ornaments. Metamorphic rocks used as lithic resources include steatite, catlinite and related rocks, metaquartzites, and a hybrid, technically metamorphic rock type associated with spontaneously combusted or burned-out coal seams that grade from baked shale or clinker to nonvolcanic glass. Red and yellow cherts from banded iron formations were used occasionally as a lithic resource in parts of southwest Montana. Many of the lithic resources found in the western portion of the Central Lowlands physiographic province are from Paleozoic rocks. In the Colorado Plateau, the Summerville/Wanaka, Burro Canyon, and Dakota formations are the source of a variety of lithic materials. Permineralized wood and, less commonly, stromatolites are other major lithic resources from the Fort Union Formation. The primary processes that create secondary deposits that contain a variety of lithic resources are alluvial, glaciofluvial, and glacial processes.
