| NAME
|
BODIE HILLS
|
| LOCATION
|
Mono County,
eastern California.
|
CHEMICAL
SOURCE(S)
|
Bodie Hills.
|
| DESCRIPTION
|
This extensive source of high-quality obsidian is located north of Mono Lake and east of Bridgeport on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Small obsidian nodules correlated with the Bodie Hills source have also been found in secondary fluvial deposits in the Pine Grove Hills of western Nevada. Worked obsidian is reported to cover an area of at least 8 km2 and artifacts from the source are found in large quantities throughout eastcentral California. Evidence of the trans-Sierran procurement and exchange of large quantities of glass from Bodie Hills is well-documented at many archaeological sites in the westcentral Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Central Valley, and the central coast of California.
View of the Sierras from the Pine Grove Hills in western Nevada.
Obsidian Hydration: A linear hydration rate of 650 - 670 years/µm has been proposed although the validity of this linear rate has been questioned by Jackson (1984). Induced hydration studies suggest a similar hydration rate as obsidian from nearby Casa Diablo source. The existence of two different rates of hydration for geochemically identical but texturally different source areas has also been suggested.
|
| REFERENCES
|
Basgall 1989
Bieling 1992
Ericson 1981, 1982
Ericson et al. 1976
Fredrickson 1991
Goldberg et al. 1990
Jackson 1984
Jackson and Ericson 1994
Singer and Ericson 1977
|
| CREDITS
|
Specimens for trace element analysis were provided by Kirk Halford (Bureau of Land Management) and Tom Mallard (MallardDesign Company).
|
