PXRF analysis of obsidian artifacts from Albania: Crossroads or cul-de-sac?

Abstract

Archaeologists first identified obsidian artifacts in Albania in the early 20th century, but their numbers were small and the contexts insecure. Their source was never determined. Nor was it clear why, given the large numbers of obsidian artifacts recovered in regions to the south and north, in areas like central and southern Greece and Croatia, more obsidian artifacts were not found in Albania. In an attempt to address these problems in Albanian prehistoric archaeology, we analyzed eight obsidian artifacts from six sites – out of a total of only 16 known pieces from the entire country, many of which are now lost – using portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF). One of these, from the Putanja site, is from Lipari, Italy. The other seven are from Melos, Greece. All eight appear to date from the Middle/Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age (5500–1050/25 BCE). The absence of obsidian in Albania is not the result of poor archaeological sampling; several, recent intensive surface surveys and excavations in south and north Albania produced no obsidian. Rather, it may be that obsidian was not imported to prehistoric Albania due to the presence of abundant, accessible, very fine flint sources, located in particular in the southwest of the country. Consequently, the prehistoric inhabitants of Albanian were out of the loop or otherwise uninterested in obsidian during those periods of Mediterranean prehistory, specifically from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age, when it was traded most extensively.