These obsidian modified flakes were collected from the Saxman site, a large Great Bend aspect village in Rice County, and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2021. There is no natural source of obsidian in Rice County, so it was likely traded from a volcanic source such as in the Yellowstone region of Wyoming or Taos, New Mexico. Archeologists are interested in what the artifacts, even the smallest of artifacts, can tell about how people used resources, moved across their landscapes and interacted with other groups. The people that inhabited Great Bend aspect sites are ancestral to the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.

Date: 1500-1650 CE