LITHIC TECHNOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION AT THE BAKER SITE: A RHYOLITE QUARRY ON THE MARGINS OF PLUVIAL LAKE MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA

A sample of 794 artifacts from the extant Baker site (CA-SBR-541) chipped stone assemblage, a well-known central Mojave Desert rhyolite source, was analyzed to understand how prehistoric hunter-gatherers organized their stone tool technology around pluvial Lake Mojave (today’s Soda and Silver Lake playas) and how this site fits into regional patterns of lithic procurement and production across the Mojave Desert and Great Basin. Analysis of the tools, cores, and debitage suggests the Baker site primarily functioned as a rhyolite quarry and workshop where hunter-gatherers emphasized the production of early- to middle-stage bifaces and flake blanks for transport to off-site locations. The outcropping of Baker rhyolite boulders, the high proportion of early-stage reduction debris, and the presence of exhausted, technologically finished tools supports this study’s interpretation that the Baker site was a source for raw material procurement and biface and flake blank production with occasional opportunistic tool manufacture. A Levallois-like core reduction technique evident on nearly 18% of the analyzed cores suggests this strategy was a work-around to produce flake blanks from the available small raw material packages and less-than-ideal stone quality. Comparison of 50 cores from the nearby Soda Mountains felsite quarry/workshop complex show many similarities between the lithic technological strategies associated with the procurement and use of felsite and rhyolite around pluvial Lake Mojave, with raw material package size representing the most substantial difference. Attempts to geochemically trace Baker rhyolite across the Mojave Desert landscape fails to show movement of toolstone originating from the site outside of the Lake Mojave area.