Turkish occurrences of obsidian and use by prehistoric peoples in the Near East from 14,000 to 6000 BP

Abstract

Obsidian was widely used as a raw material for making tools and luxury objects by prehistoric peoples of the Near and Middle East. To identify the origin of archaeological obsidians and the volcanic complexes which produced the blocks from which they were knapped, the different methods of mineralogy, chemistry or dating are used. In this paper we develop the geochemical identification of Turkish obsidian sources, from the volcano to the artefacts, introducing the use of spidergrams and argon geochronology as useful tools. This leads to a reevaluation of the possible obsidian sources, to the identification of new sources and to wider archaeological conclusions. Analyses carried out on a selection of samples of Turkish geological obsidians and obsidian artefacts from Near East sites demonstrate that this obsidian came essentially from central and south-eastern Anatolia. However, although there are numerous sources in these regions, at the present time only some of the deposits are known to have been exploited: in Cappadocia, Göllü Dağı (eastern flank) and Nenezi Dağı; in eastern Anatolia, the deposits of Bingöl and Nemrut Dağı, as well as a source on the northern shore of Lake Van (Meydan Dağı/Ziyaret Dağı ?). The obsidian from Cappadocia was widely used in central Anatolia; its use spread westward to the sea of Marmara, and eastward to the middle Euphrates, then along the Mediterranean coast to the Negev. The obsidian of Lake Van was diffused through the basins of the Tigris and Euphrates to the shores of the Persian Gulf, even reaching Arabia; to the west it penetrated the valleys of the Orontes and Jordan rivers as far as the Dead Sea.