According to a CBC report, an extensive new project has highlighted just how vast the trade network in obsidian was for Indigenous communities living during the precontact period in current-day Alberta. Obsidian, a type of volcanic glass, was indispensable for many ancient cultures around the world because it can be easily shaped into arrowheads and cutting tools. No volcanoes have ever erupted in Alberta, however, so every sherd of obsidian was transported there from elsewhere. Researchers from the Alberta Obsidian Project analyzed 383 obsidian fragments from 96 sites across the area dating to between 13,000 and 300 years ago. They...