Obsidian from the Bronze Age Village of San Vincenzo, Stromboli, Aeolian Islands: A Preliminary Investigation

Sara Tiziana Levi,Andrea Di Renzoni,Marta Arzarello,Valentina Cannavò,Diego Calliari,Effie Photos-Jones

doi:10.1515/opar-2019-0004

Abstract

Abstract We present the preliminary results of the ongoing investigation of the obsidian from the Bronze Age village of San Vincenzo, Stromboli, Aeolian Islands, for the purpose of providing technological and typological characterization, and also provenance of the raw material, the latter with non-destructive p-XRF. Regarding provenance, the source of the raw material is likely to be neighbouring Lipari. It was transported to Stromboli and used mostly in a highly opportunistic manner and for the production of blade(let), non-bladelike tools (mainly scrapers) and micro bladelets. The obsidian distribution around the site shows concentration in both domestic and production areas.

Highlights

Stromboli is an active volcano and the north-easternmost island of the Aeolian Islands, an archipelago composed of seven islands in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Figure 1)
The preliminary results of this study seem to show that the lithic industry of San Vincenzo site was focused on the maximum exploitation of the raw material arrived from Lipari, as suggested by the profusion of small-size exhausted cores that show highly opportunistic débitage practices, and by the prominence of débris and by the lack of cores and débris of big dimensions (Figure 6)
The analysis of the distribution, considering all the finds and the tools only, show significant concentration of the obsidian in domestic contexts such as huts 1, 2 and 3 and in the productive area W. It seems that the depletion of the raw materials was mainly aimed, at least in the last moment of the reduction sequences, to the obtainment of blade-like products of small dimension and was carried out by hard hammer opportunistic débitage, but, as some finds seem to attest, by more standardized bipolar reduction sequences

Summary

Introduction

Stromboli is an active volcano and the north-easternmost island of the Aeolian Islands, an archipelago composed of seven islands in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Figure 1). The Archipelago has been inhabited since the 6th millennium BCE, and Stromboli has an attested human occupation from the 4th millennium BCE. The Stromboli terrain is very steep (12.2 km wide and with a volcano peak height at 926 m). There are only a few flat areas on the island, mostly on its northern coast, and San Vincenzo is the largest (a steepsided plateau about 6 ha wide resting between 40 and 100 m a.s.l.), located in the NE: a strategic position for the control of Southern Tyrrhenian sea but with no visual contact with the other Islands (Di Renzoni, Lopes, Martinelli, & Photos-Jones, 2016a).

Methods

Results

Conclusion