An Exploratory Non-Destructive Provenance Analysis of Two Middle Archaic Greenstone Pendants from Little Salt Spring, Florida, USA

Test excavations in 2005 and 2006 of the Little Salt Spring mortuary pond in Southwest Florida (USA) yielded two exotic stone pendants indirectly dated to the Middle Archaic (7000–5000 14C year B.P.). Hand‐specimen petrographic observation, combined with non‐destructive environmental scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and whole‐rock X‐ray diffraction, identified the pendants as (1) a mica‐plagioclase‐edenite amphibolite or schist and (2) an intermediate pyroxene‐ and/or amphibole‐bearing granitoid. Provenance was broadly constrained to a number of potential sources in the southern Appalachian Piedmont of the United States (at a minimum distance of 650 km from the archaeological findspot) utilizing the United States Geological Survey's National Geologic Map Database lithologic search tool (GEOLEX) and Mineral Resources On‐Line Spatial Data GIS database. Due to the absence of lithologic matches within the state of Florida, we propose that the two artifacts most likely arrived at Little Salt Spring through down‐the‐line exchange of materials of prestige value with geologic origins in the southern Appalachian Piedmont, arguing for the existence of small‐scale long‐distance lithic exchange networks reaching into Archaic Florida. From a methodological standpoint, this study illustrates the potential utility of data collected under nonideal, non‐destructive analytical conditions for deriving meaningful archaeological interpretations.