Abstract
Some 318 gunflints recently recovered from the French barque longue, La Belle, which ran aground off the coast of Texas in 1686, and an additional 405 gunflints from the related terrestrial site of Fort St. Louis offer an opportunity to research the origins of gunflints found in the colonial period Americas. Current research suggests that the best means of addressing this question is through inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), comparing traceelement chemical levels in European source materials with trace-element levels in gunflints found in the New World. A small number of samples from colonial sites and European source locations were submitted to evaluate the potential of this application for sourcing chert. While the initial results are encouraging, some caution is warranted.
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Durst, J.J. Sourcing Gunflints to Their Country of Manufacture. Hist Arch 43, 19–30 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376748
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376748