Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Obsidian in Alberta and Human Dispersal into North America’s Ice-Free Corridor

ABSTRACT

We utilize pXRF to source the oldest obsidian artifacts in Alberta, Canada. The province lacks obsidian outcrops and hosts much of the late Pleistocene Ice-Free Corridor, the northern and southern ends of which are in proximity to obsidian outcrops in Yukon, Alaska, Idaho, and Wyoming. The early presence of these obsidians in Alberta informs models of human dispersion. Results point to an early establishment of relationships in the central Ice-Free Corridor that reached into Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. Alberta appears to have been entered by people from the south who had ties to the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West. After biotic viability of a full Corridor, limited evidence suggests that northern people from Beringia may have trickled south and admixed with southern populations in the central Corridor region. Upon deglaciation of access routes through the Rocky Mountains, obsidian from western sources in British Columbia arrived relatively quickly in northern Alberta.

KEYWORDS:

• Obsidian
• provenance
• Ice-Free Corridor
• deglaciation
• Late Pleistocene

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the following people for arranging access to obsidian: Jack Brink, Karen Giering, Bob Dawe, Kyle Forsythe, Charles Toews, Colin Breitkreutz, Melanie Berndt, Mary Kamieniecki, Chester Asmussen, and John Visser. Thank you to Judson Finley and Ben Fowler for obsidian information in Idaho/Montana. Special thanks to Darryl Bereziuk, Grant Clark, David Link, and Matthew Wangler for logistical support. Artifact illustrations were provided by Nicole Lekach. Thank you to Tate Kristensen for assistance with Figure 13. Thanks to Richard Hughes for obsidian analyses and input. We acknowledge that the artifacts and subject matter in this paper pertain to the ancestors of many modern Indigenous nations whose traditional territories encompass what is now called Alberta. This includes data collected on Treaty 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10 lands. Thank you to two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Todd J. Kristensen

Todd J. Kristensen earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Alberta. He is currently a Regional Archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta. His research interests include lithic provenance studies, Subarctic lifeways, and public outreach.

Timothy E. Allan

Timothy E. Allan earned his MA in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia. He is a Project Archaeologist with Ember Archaeology and conducts obsidian sourcing for consultants, researchers, and avocational archaeologists in western Canada.

John W. Ives

John W. Ives earned his PhD from the University of Michigan. He is an emeritus professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. His research interests include Plains, Subarctic, and Great Basin prehistory, archaeological theory, PaleoIndigenous studies, and public archaeology.

Robin Woywitka

Robin Woywitka earned his PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Alberta. He is an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University.

Gabriel Yanicki

Gabriel Yanicki earned his PhD from the University of Alberta. His research explores themes of intergroup relations and social identity in ancient North America. He is the Curator of Western Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of History.

Jeffrey T. Rasic

Jeffrey Rasic earned his PhD in Anthropology from Washington State University. He is an Archaeologist and Program Manager at the National Park Service in Alaska (Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve).