Abstract
AbstractIn the last twenty years, obsidian artefacts have been found in important and often extensive karst cavities in Southern Italy: three located in Calabria (Grotta della Monaca, and Grotta del Tesauro, in Sant’Agata di Esaro, Cosenza; Grotta Pietra Sant’Angelo in San Lorenzo Bellizzi, Cosenza), one in Puglia (Grotta di Santa Barbara in Polignano a Mare, Bari) and another in Campania (Grotta di Polla, Salerno). All these sites, that have returned a total of 151 obsidian tools, were connected to human frequentation of the underground environments that occurred during the Holocene, which can be precisely located in the vast period between the Neolithic and the Eneolithic (6th–4th millennium BC). They are mainly blades and bladelets, but also burins together with scrapers and cores, generally of small dimensions. SEM-EDS and WD-XRF absolutely non-destructive analyses carried out on these items have shown that all samples have a source area in the obsidian outcrops of the island of Lipari (Messina, Italy). These data confirm that the Aeolian island of Lipari furnished the privileged obsidian extraction outcrops for most of the Neolithic and Eneolithic archaeological sites of Southern Italy.
Highlights
IntroductionSource determination of obsidians artefacts is one of the main targets of petroarchaeometric research; it has been developed since the 1930s through partially destructive or absolutely non-destructive analytical
Source determination of obsidians artefacts is one of the main targets of petroarchaeometric research; it has been developed since the 1930s through partially destructive or absolutely non-destructive analyticalArticle note: This article is a part of Special Issue ‘The Black Gold That Came from the Sea
SEM-EDS and WD-XRF absolutely non-destructive analyses carried out on these items have shown that all samples have a source area in the obsidian outcrops of the island of Lipari (Messina, Italy)
Summary
Source determination of obsidians artefacts is one of the main targets of petroarchaeometric research; it has been developed since the 1930s through partially destructive or absolutely non-destructive analytical. This paper presents the results of an archaeometric research carried out on 151 fragments of obsidian, collected in five different caves of Southern Italy (Fig. 1): Grotta della Monaca, (54 obsidian artefacts), Grotta del Tesauro, (11 obsidian artefacts), Grotta Pietra Sant’Angelo (46 obsidian artefacts), Grotta di Santa Barbara (54 obsidian artefacts) and Grotta di Polla (6 obsidian artefacts). Obsidian samples were investigated with regard to their typological and functional use; their source area has been characterized in an absolutely non-destructive way using WD-XRF and SEM-EDS techniques
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