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Named stone

Bodie Hills obsidian

Also called Bodie Hills source

A kind of obsidian

Bodie Hills obsidianObsidianWest Coast & Plateau

Description

Bodie Hills, in Mono County, California, just north of Bridgeport, is one of the best-studied obsidian sources in the West. The Nevada Department of Transportation says its quality rivals Oregon's Glass Buttes; some of the glass is very glassy and almost clear, and it rings when struck. It occurs as outcrops and cobbles near Aurora Canyon. This high-quality glass was traded into central California for thousands of years. In the San Joaquin Valley, Bodie Hills obsidian dominates the northern valley north of the Merced River, while Casa Diablo dominates farther south. Ericson's model, summarised by Sutton and Des Lauriers, has eastern California quarries supplying westward trade from about 4,000 years ago, with use of Bodie Hills and Casa Diablo glass declining by about 1,500 years ago.

How to identify it

Colour
Some very glassy and almost clear (Moore).
Luster
Very glassy in places; it produces a ringing sound when struck.

Geology

Obsidian outcrops and cobbles in the Bodie Hills, Mono County, California (T.5N., R.26E., near Aurora Canyon road, north of Bridgeport). The opened sources give location and quality notes but not the formation or age.

Where it comes from

West Coast & Plateau

States

Quarries and outcrops

  • Bodie Hills near Bridgeport, Mono County, California

Used by

  • Trade west across the Sierra Nevada for thousands of years; dominates northern San Joaquin Valley assemblages north of the Merced River
  • Late Horizon (about 1,500 B.P.) decline in biface-based trade (Ericson, as cited by Sutton and Des Lauriers)

Look-alikes

Stones that are easy to confuse with Bodie Hills obsidian.

  • Casa Diablo obsidian (central San Joaquin Valley)
  • Glass Buttes obsidian (Moore compares quality)

Sources

  1. Moore, Joe. 2009. Great Basin Tool-Stone Sources: The NDOT Obsidian and Tool-Stone Sourcing Project, 2002 Progress Report. Nevada Department of Transportation, Cultural Resource Section.deschutesmeridian.com (opens in a new tab)
  2. Sutton, Mark Q., and Matthew R. Des Lauriers. 2002. Emerging Patterns in Obsidian Usage in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 38(2-3).pcas.org (opens in a new tab)

All materials