Defining cultural traditions in the Early Bronze Age Aegean: Characterizing obsidian consumption at Early Cycladic Kastri (Syros, Greece)

Abstract

While the obsidian sources of the Aegean formed an important focus for the first Eurasian characterization studies, there have been far fewer subsequent sourcing projects in this region compared to the neighbouring regions of the West/Central Mediterranean and Anatolia. The work that has been done suggests that there were significant differences in the use of the region’s two major sources, Sta Nychia and Dhemenegaki on Melos. This paper contributes to Aegean sourcing studies, and understanding of Melian obsidian exploitation over the long-term, via a characterization study of 149 artefacts from the late Early Bronze Age II (mid third millennium cal. BC) fortified site of Kastri on the Cycladic island of Syros, Greece. Methodologically, this involved integrating elemental data generated by pXRF, with the artefacts’ techno-typological, and scalar attributes, to detail the population’s traditions of consumption. The results indicate an exclusive on-site use of Melian obsidian to make pressure blades albeit with a clear preference for raw materials from the Sta Nychia source, and only a minority fashioned from Dhemenegaki products. When these data are contextualised, it appears that the Kastri community’s raw material choices formed part of a wider Cycladic and Cretan cultural tradition, yet differ from those practiced by western Anatolian populations, despite the significant ideational and material flow from the latter region to the Cyclades at this time. Ultimately, this paper not only reconfirms prior claims to the distinct exploitation histories of the Sta Nychia and Dhemenegaki sources, but also employs characterization studies as a means of mapping common crafting traditions (raw material, technical and morphological choices) that were both informed by and came to define a particular social group’s very way of being.