Alberta’s Obsidian Discoveries Shed Light on Ancient Indigenous Relationships and Trade Patterns

These obsidian artifacts have been excavated at bison jumps and other archaeological sites in Alberta. Archaeological Survey of Alberta

The discovery of obsidian artifacts in Alberta is aiding researchers in tracking the historical movements of indigenous populations throughout Western Canada, while also providing insights into ancient social networks.

A recently published paper sheds light on the intricate social and economic relationships that prevailed in Alberta during prehistoric times thanks to the obsidian weaponry unearthed from the province’s eastern slopes.

The jet-black naturally occurring volcanic glass that was used to fashion weaponry such as arrowheads and spears date back to a period between 13,000 and 300 years ago and have been found at 285 archaeological sites in the region, despite Alberta not having any volcanoes, according to a report authored by archaeologist Timothy Allan.

Allan’s report, which analyzed obsidian sourced from 96 archaeological sites, found that a prolific ​​obsidian trade existed in various regions of North America long before the arrival of Europeans. Metal from Europeans didn’t start  replacing the stone arrowheads favoured by indigenous people in Western Canada until roughly 300 years ago.

The paper was published by the Archaeological Survey of Alberta and represents the latest contribution from the Alberta Obsidian Project, a partnership among researchers and archaeologists investigating the history of obsidian in the province.

Archaeological Survey of Alberta regional archaeologist Todd Kristensen said the Obsidian Project and paper’s like Allan’s help archaeologists understand how human relationships stretched across the country and how they changed over thousands of years.

“Obsidian was significant to ancient people as an incredibly sharp stone for making weapons and knives. But, because it had to be exchanged long distances, it was probably just as significant as an indicator of political power and the extent of social networks that a person could maintain,” Kristensen told The Epoch Times.

“There are no natural sources of obsidian in Canada beyond B.C. and Yukon so any time archaeologists find it in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Ontario, it tells us about far-reaching human relationships,” added Kristensen, who is a collaborator on the broader project that Allan’s paper is connected to.

The Alberta Obsidian Project began in 2015 and project researchers have studied and catalogued more than 1,200 obsidian artifacts in the province so far. Many of the artifacts have been discovered at what were once bison jumps; cliff formations used by indigenous people to hunt and kill bison in mass quantities.

The project recently began publishing articles on the subject, including pieces Kristensen has contributed to, but he said there is still much work to be done and many more insights to be gleaned from the artifacts discovered.

“It’s taken a long time to slowly piece together enough data to tell a meaningful story,” he said. “It’ll probably take us another decade to get a full sense of how connected people were using obsidian research.”

This arrow head is just one of the many ancient obsidian weapons excavated at bison jumps and other archaeological sites in Alberta. Archaeological Survey of Alberta

Importance of Obsidian

Allan, an archeologist with Ember Archaeology in Sherwood Park, Alta., described obsidian artifacts as a roadmap of sorts that shows early indigenous civilizations were not isolated or solitary.

“I think what interested me the most was uncovering how complex indigenous societies were, and that people moved vast distances and were interconnected with one another,” he told The Epoch Times.

Allan said his forthcoming research documents how a single variety of obsidian was traded from northern Alberta to northern Texas, and from the Rockies to the Great Lakes.

“Clearly this means that millions of indigenous peoples were connected through the trade of goods and ideas across the continent,” he said.

Bison hunts were thought to be key drivers of the obsidian trade. Bison jumps in particular may have been the source of annual social gatherings as people from the plains hunted, traded, and socialized together, Allan said in his report.

Obsidian soaks up unique elements in a volcano before it erupts, which lends the inky-black substance a specific geochemistry. To discover the origins of a particular obsidian artifact, researchers use laboratory tools to analyze the glassy volcanic rock’s geochemistry and then compare the results to rocks from each volcano with obsidian in North America.

This process told researchers the obsidian found on Alberta’s eastern slopes originated from locations ranging between 400 and 1,200 kilometres away, making it likely a solitary piece of obsidian was exchanged numerous times, according to Allan’s research paper.

The vast majority of obsidian analyzed—62 percent—originally hailed from Bear Gulch in Idaho, while roughly 30 percent originated from Obsidian Cliff in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. Smaller amounts also came from Anahim Peak and Mount Edziza sites in British Columbia.

Such findings challenge what archaeologists and historians previously thought about the lifestyles and movements of indigenous people.

It was long believed that communities in the forested areas of Alberta had minimal interaction with neighbouring groups, with the mountains serving as a significant barrier, when in reality it was a time of human contact that spanned the continent, Kristensen said.

“The recent work indicates that human relationships spanned the Rockies, which can help explain how ideas, language, and DNA moved around,” he said, noting that archeologists now believe that bison jumps could have attracted people from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.

“Those big human networks were part of the adaptation: the relationships kept people alive and secured their place on a landscape,” he added.