Provenance analysis of obsidian artifacts from the Indigirka River basin (Northeast Siberia) and the long-distance exchange of raw material in prehistoric Siberian Arctic

Abstract

For the first time, an obsidian provenance study is performed for artifacts from the Indigirka River basin (Northeast Siberia). The non-destructive ED–XRF analysis of seven obsidian items from the Buolumuna-Taasa site, dated to the Neolithic (ca. 5000–1000 cal BC), shows that all of them originated from the Lake Krasnoe source, situated ca. 1300 km away. This is a remarkable example of super-long-distance transport / exchange of obsidian in prehistory of Siberian Arctic, and it testifies in favor of extensive contacts of ancient population in Northeast Siberia since the Mesolithic, ca. 6900 cal BC, or even earlier.