Neolithic Obsidian Economy Around the Monte Arci Source (Sardinia, Italy): The Importance of Integrated Provenance/Technology Analyses

Abstract

With few exceptions linked to locally available options, obsidian is almost the unique lithic resource used for the production of chipped stone industries in the Neolithic sites of central-southern Sardinia. However the local economy of this raw material, an important clue to support hypotheses on the dynamics of interregional interactions, had in the past been largely neglected. In order to fill this gap we initiated (Luglie et al. 2007) a programme of “integrated” studies of Sardinian Neolithic obsidians involving the exhaustive study of reduction techniques, obsidian tools use and provenance of selected Early and Middle Neolithic assemblages. We also reached a better level of knowledge of the field occurences and geochemical variations of the Monte Arci obsidians. The archaeological obsidian sourcing was realized by a non-destructive association of visual and geochemical characterizations. We discuss here the present status of this approach from the Sardinian Early Neolithic (EN) sites of Su Carroppu (Luglie et al. 2007), Rio Saboccu (Luglie et al. 2008) and Sa Punta cases.