Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:33:38.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obsidian in the Western Mediterranean: Characterisation by Neutron Activation Analysis and Optical Emission Spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

B. R. Hallam ,
S. E. Warren  and
Colin Renfrew
B. R. Hallam
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Bradford
S. E. Warren
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Bradford
Colin Renfrew
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the history of west Mediterranean contacts and communications, obsidian has a special place, being the first traded commodity documented in the archaeological record. The commercial contacts which it reveals precede those of the Mycenaeans by more than three millennia. The general outlines of this trade and the principal sources exploited have previously been documented by trace element analysis undertaken by optical emission spectrography. The present article presents the data obtained by a different trace element approach—neutron activation analysis—and sets out to compare and evaluate the results obtained by the two methods. One important new archaeological outcome is the significance of the Sardinian sources, and the extent to which southern France participated in the contacts of the time. Regional and temporal trends now becoming apparent have a wide significance for Mediterranean prehistory and clarify the role of interregional contacts within it. No direct contacts with the east Mediterranean or Aegean are documented over the time range studied, nor do obsidian finds suggests that southern Iberia was in close touch with the west-central Mediterranean during the neolithic period. Four zones of interaction, each with a natural source of obsidian as focus, may be identified.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 42 , December 1976 , pp. 85 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aspinall, A., Feather, S. W. and Renfrew, C., 1972. ‘Neutron activation analysis of Aegean obsidians’, Nature, 237, 333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barfield, L. H., 1972. ‘The first neolithic cultures of north-east Italy’, in Schwabedissen, H. (ed.), Die Anfänge des Neolithikums vom Orient bis Nordeuropa, 184.Google Scholar
Bigazzi, S. G. and Bonadonna, F. P., 1973. ‘Fission track dating of the obsidian of Lipari Island (Italy)’, Nature, 242, 322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, H. R., Asaro, F. and Perlman, I., 1973. ‘Composition variations in obsidian sources and the archaeological implications’, Archaeometry, 15, 123.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1971. ‘Trade competition and artefact distribution’, World Archaeology, 2, 347–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brea, L. B., 1966. Sicily.Google Scholar
Brown, D. F., 1965. ‘The chronology of the northwestern Mediterranean’, in Ehrich, R. W. (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology, 321.Google Scholar
Buchner, G., 1949. ‘Richerche sui giacimenti e sulle industrie di ossidiana in Italia I’, Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 4, (Fasc. 1–2), 162.Google Scholar
Cann, J. R., Dixon, J. E. and Renfrew, C., 1969. ‘Obsidian analysis and the obsidian trade’, in Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E. S. (eds.), Science and Archaeology, 578.Google Scholar
Cann, J. R. and Renfrew, C., 1964. ‘The characterisation of obsidian and its application to the Mediterranean region’, PPS, 30, 111.Google Scholar
Carmichael, I. S. E., 1962. ‘Pantelleritic liquids and their phenocrysts’, Mineralogical Magazine, 33, 109.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., 1965. Prehistoric Europe; The Economic Basis.Google Scholar
Cornaggia Castiglioni, O., Fussi, F. and D'Agnolo, M., 1962–1963, Indagini sulla provenienza dell'ossidiana in uso nelle industrie italiane, I and II; Atti delta Societa Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milano, L11, 310.Google Scholar
Courtin, J., 1967. ‘Le problème de l'obsidienne dans le néolithique du Midi de la France’, Rivista di Studi Liguri, 33, 93.Google Scholar
Dixon, J. E., Cann, J. R. and Renfrew, C., 1968. ‘Obsidian and the origins of trade’, Scientific American, 218, 38.Google Scholar
Gordus, A. A., Wright, G. A. and Griffin, J. B., 1968. ‘Obsidian sources characterised by neutron activation analysis’, Science, 161, 382.Google Scholar
Hogg, A. H. A., 1971. ‘Some applications of surface fieldwork’, in Jesson, M. and Hill, D. (eds.), The Iron Age and its Hillforts, 105–125.Google Scholar
Imbo, G., 1964–1966. ‘Active Volcanoes of the World’, Part 18 (Italy), (Rome).Google Scholar
Keller, J., 1970. ‘Datierung der Obsidiane und Bimstuffe von Lipari’, Neues Jahrbuch Geologischer und Paläontologischer Mittheilungen, 2, 90–101.Google Scholar
Malavolti, F., 1953. ‘L'ossidiana del Pescale’, Emilia Preromana 3, 3–8.Google Scholar
Paget, R. F., 1973. Central Italy.Google Scholar
Perlman, I. and Asaro, F., 1969. ‘Pottery analysis by neutron activation’, Archaeometry, 11, 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puxeddu, C., 1955–1957. ‘Giacimenti di ossidiana del Monte Arci in Sardegna e sua irradiazione’, Studi Sardi, 14–15, 10.Google Scholar
Reilly, W. J., 1931. The Law of Retail Gravitation.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., 1972. ‘Malta and the calibrated radiocarbon chronology’, Antiquity, 46, 141–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C., in press, ‘The later obsidian of Deh Luran—the evidence of Chagha Send, in Hole, F., Excavations at Chagha Sefid.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., Cann, J. R. and Dixon, J. E., 1965', ‘Obsidian in the Aegean’, Annual of the British School of Archaeology in Athens, 60, 225.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. and Dixon, J. E., in press, ‘Obsidian in Western Asia—a review, in Longworth, I. H. and Sieveking, G. (eds.), Problems in Economic and Social Archaeology.Google Scholar
Sayre, E. V., 1963. ‘Methods and applications of activation analysis’, Anual Review of Nuclear Science, 13, 145.Google Scholar
Schroeder, G. L., Kraner, H. W., Evans, R. D. and Brydges, T., 1966. ‘Lithium drifted Germanium detectors: applications to neutron activation analysis’, Science, 151, 815.Google Scholar
Tidswell, W. V. and Barker, S. M., 1971. Quantitative Methods, an Approach to Socio-Economic Geography.Google Scholar
Trump, D. H., 1963. ‘Pantelleria revisited’, Antiquity, 37, 203.Google Scholar
Trump, D. H., 1966. Central and Southern Italy.Google Scholar
Warren, S. E., 1973. ‘Geometrical factors in the neutron activation analysis of archaeological specimens’, Archaeometry, 15, 115.Google Scholar
Wright, G. A., 1969. Obsidian Analysis and Prehistoric Near Eastern Trade: 7500–3500 BC, (University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological papers, No. 37).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zies, E. G., 1960. ‘Chemical analysis of two pantellerites’, Journal of Petrology, 1, 304.Google Scholar