To Measure or not to Measure: Geochemical Analysis of Siliceous Materials in the Interior Plateau of British Columbia

Lithic sourcing studies remain one of the most effective ways to establish past trade networks and cross cultural connections within a region. The nature of trade within the British Columbian Interior Plateau may be assessed by analysing chert débitage excavated from Structure 109 at Keatley Creek and its archaeological and geological origins/quarries. This paper discusses both the potential and limitations of a current lithic sourcing study that is attempting to utilize petrographic and geochemical methods to characterize and correlate chert and chalcedony artefacts to their geologic sources. s a multidisciplinary field archaeology draws from a wide range of methods and techniques. Although this is beneficial for the majority of archaeologists, it also has the potential to lead to the misuse of technology. There are limits to the usefulness of techniques used by natural sciences such as geology and chemistry to understand archaeological problems. The focus of this paper is to explore the capabilities and limitations of geochemical analysis. To do so, I will discuss geoarchaeology and its relevance to archaeological inquiry, the importance of geochemical characterization studies, the potentiality and constraints of geochemical analysis, and conclude with an in-progress case study from the Keatley Creek site, British Columbia, Canada. Archaeology and Earth Science