Geochemical source evaluation of archaeological chert from the Carson mounds site in northwestern Mississippi using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) Jayur Madhusudan Mehta a, ⁎, Grant McCall b , Theodore Marks a,c , James Enloe c a New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, United States b Tulane University, United States c University of Iowa, United States abstract article info Article history: Received 5 September 2016 Received in revised form 6 December 2016 Accepted 8 December 2016 Available online xxxx Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were geochemically mea- sured using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Burlington chert is visually identifiable based on its whitish and translucent coloring; the raw material and artifacts are usually associated with geologic sources located hundreds of miles to the north of Carson in the Central Mississippi Valley (CMV). Burlington chert is generally used to make microlithic tools that are found at large Mississippian centers in the CMV such as Cahokia, Zebree, and Labras Lake, all located upriver of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) and of Carson. Herein we report on geochemical sourcing of Burlington chert from Carson; 99 samples were analyzed from elite and non-elite contexts. Geochem- ical data were generated using pXRF technology and are used to evaluate models of trade and exchange in the LMV during the Mississippi period (1200–1540 CE). Preliminary findings indicate that Burlington chert did not originate exclusively from sources controlled by Cahokia (namely the Crescent Quarry), but rather, from a wide-ranging territory. Therefore, we propose that multi-agent, multi-source trade networks brought Burlington chert to Carson. Consequently, we suggest future testing should explore using additional geologic and archaeo- logical samples the hypothesis that multiple, imbricated networks of trade and exchange were responsible for bringing Burlington chert to Carson. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In iconography and material culture, in architecture and monumen- tality, and in subsistence, food storage, and trade, Mississippian societies are arguably the most complex manifestation of indigenous social orga- nization in the Eastern Woodlands of the United States (Anderson, 1994; Blitz and Livingood, 2004; Knight and Steponaitis, 1998; Mt Pleasant, 2015; Pauketat, 2007; Reilly and Garber, 2007). Yet they are not one singular cultural unit, but rather, a diverse constellation of com- plex socio-political forms, defined by inchoate alliances, exchange net- works, and ritual and sacred paraphernalia (Anderson and Sassaman, 2012; 168; Helms, 1998; Steponaitis, 1986:391). Scholars have debated the nature of this organization, vacillating between chiefdom and state for some time, and have largely disregarded the Service-Steward- Oberg nomenclature entirely (Oberg, 1955; Marcoux and Wilson, 2010; Pauketat, 2007; Service, 1962; Steward, 1955). One potential so- lution to understanding sociopolitical complexity at a deeper level is to delineate more clearly the trade and exchange of valued goods through- out the river valleys, floodplains, and coastlines that demarcate the Mississippian world (Smith, 1984, 1990; Fig. 2). The exchange of goods, whether through reciprocal gifting (Sahlins, 1972) or through symbolically meaningful ocean trade routes (Malinowski, 2002 [1922]), has long been used as a means for understanding how “social structure itself may be defined as the pattern of repeated contacts be- tween people…” (Renfrew and Bahn, 2004:357). To that end, this re- search focuses on the trade and exchange of Burlington chert from geologic source to archaeological deposit and investigates the relation- ships between two of the larger and most complex Mississippian-cul- ture site in the Eastern Woodlands, Cahokia (near St. Louis, Missouri) and Carson (north Mississippi). In the long run, and after additional sampling and research, we anticipate this work will delineate lithic ex- change economies between hierarchical, agricultural, and monumental societies, what are typically thought of as pre-industrial complex socie- ties, in the Eastern Woodlands. Outside of North America, the relevance of this work is the successful demonstration of pXRF technology to iden- tify variation in chert artifacts and geology. It is generally accepted that microlithic industries at Carson are re- markably similar to those recovered at large Mississippian sites in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 11 (2017) 381–389 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: jmehta@tulane.edu (J.M. Mehta). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.014 2352-409X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep