Neutron Activation Analysis of Aegean Obsidians

Abstract

THE wide extent and early date of the prehistoric trade in obsidian in the Aegean has been documented over the past decade1–3. Trace-element analysis by optical spectroscopy did not, however, achieve an entirely satisfactory separation between all the sources of obsidian which might have been used in the prehistoric Aegean. Fission track analysis has recently been employed3 to corroborate the early trade in obsidian from Melian sources. The technique of neutron activation analysis has now been utilized to discriminate between the products of the various natural sources of the material in the Aegean, central Anatolia and central Europe. The analysis of artefacts from archaeological contexts then allows important new inferences to be drawn about the extent of the prehistoric obsidian trade in those regions.