Postdepositional Corrosions in Lithic Items Recovered from Submerged Marine Contexts

Both chemical and mechanical weathering can heavily alter lithic artifacts from prehistoric sites. One interesting finding in the Ray Hole Spring assemblage was the use of a so-called non-traditional tool stone (dolomitized arkosic rock) in place of chert. The Douglas Beach artifact (a lanceolate point) was also a chert object that, like the Ray Hole materials, was heavily corroded. This chapter describes the battery of instrumental techniques—SEM, XRF, XRD and EMPA—that the authors used and discusses the results of these analyses. The authors then propose a protocol for evaluating corroded lithics.