ABSTRACT
Relative to later periods, understandings of long-distance exchange during the Mesoamerican Preceramic suffer from a limited range of materials whose source locations can be reliably determined. This chapter reports recent portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer results from obsidian recovered at two Preceramic sites: Las Estacas, an early Archaic period site in the Yautepec Valley of Morelos, and Yuzanu, a late Archaic site in the Nochixtlan Valley of Oaxaca. This chapter provides an overview of each archaeological site and its obsidian assemblage, and discusses the sampling methodology and results of the sourcing analysis. It present new obsidian provenience data from the Preceramic sites of Las Estacas, Morelos, and Yuzanu, Oaxaca, along with the first synthetic study of obsidian procurement in Preceramic Mesoamerica. The comparative study suffers from many of the same issues that have limited their general understanding of the Mesoamerican Preceramic.
