Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

The use of various organic resins as mastics and sealants in prehistoric North America is well documented in the archaeological and ethnographic literature. While the utilization of the creosote lac resin by people in western North America is known, resinous materials discovered in archaeological contexts are most often attributed to genus Pinus without formal analysis, partly due to the difficulty and cost of standard methods of identification. Here, three new techniques for the identification of resinous materials are described that are simpler and more cost effective than previous methods, and which will hopefully lead to the further study and better understanding of this aspect of ancient technology.