Tool stones from the Punchaw Lake Village site (FiRs-1), Nechako Plateau, British Columbia, Canada.

Progress in petrography and chemical characterization of igneous lithic material and artifacts have been used to infer culture history, land use patterns, and potential exchange networks across British Columbia in recent years. This thesis examines the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of igneous flake samples collected from the Punchaw Lake Village site (FiRs-1), located west of Quesnel, British Columbia. The flakes are primarily composed of trachydacite and dacite of one or more unknown provenances. The primary objective of this study was to determine the possible sources of these igneous materials used in the production of the artifact assemblage. Three analytical techniques were employed to determine the physical composition of the specimens: (1) petrographic descriptions of the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics (2) whole sample chemistry (major elements by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICP-ES] and (3) trace and rare earth elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry [ICP-MS]. The geochemical data were subjected to multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis to aid the interpretations of the results. Results indicate that the lithic sample from Punchaw Lake Village site originates from more than one rock type, suggesting that the site inhabitants may have engaged in exchange and/or movement throughout the Nechako Plateau. --P. ii.