THE PROVENANCE OF OBSIDIAN ARTEFACTS FROM THE WĀDĪ ATH‐THAYYILAH 3 NEOLITHIC SITE (EASTERN YEMEN PLATEAU) BY LA–ICP–MS

Archaeometry - Tập 54 Số 4 - Trang 603-622 - 2012
Donatella Barca1, Giulio Lucarini2, Francesco Fedele3
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università della Calabria, Ponte P. Bucci, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy
2Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
3Cattedra e laboratorio di Antropologia, Università di Napoli ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy†

Tóm tắt

The geological sources of obsidian in the Red Sea region provide the raw material used for the production of obsidian artefacts found in prehistoric sites on both sides of the Red Sea, as far afield as Egypt, the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. This paper presents the chemical characterization of five obsidian geological samples and 20 prehistoric artefacts from a systematically excavated Neolithic settlement in highland Yemen. The major element concentrations were determined by SEM–EDS analysis and the trace element concentrations were analysed by the LA–ICP–MS method, an almost non‐destructive technique capable of chemically characterizing the volcanic glass. A comparison of archaeological and geological determinations allows the provenance of the obsidian used for the Neolithic artefacts to be traced to definite sources in the volcanic district of the central Yemen Plateau.

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