Island Obsidian Distribution and Socioeconomic Patterns in Prehistoric Sicily and the South-Central Mediterranean

Summary

Sicily is located in between two small island sources of obsidian, Lipari and Pantelleria. Their use of obsidian starting in the Early Neolithic (ca. 6000-6500 BC) is well documented, but only over the last few years have intensive studies been done on the specific sources and subsources of artifact assemblages from many museums and superintendencies. With the use of a portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer, the specific source of many hundreds of obsidian artifacts from sites in Sicily (in the areas of Palermo, Agrigento, Siracusa) and islands to its south (Malta, Gozo, Lampedusa, Zembra) have been conducted.

Lipari obsidian was the most extensively used in the central Mediterranean, beginning after volcanic formations at Gabellotto Gorge and Canneto Dentro just before the Early Neolithic when animal and plant domesticates arrived and ceramic production also began. Lipari obsidian was immediately distributed to the north, reaching as far as southern France and the northern Adriatic in Croatia. In contrast, obsidian from Pantelleria was regularly used in western Sicily, on Malta and other islands to the south, and in Tunisia. Our extensive study now allows a clear interpretation of obsidian use and socioeconomic changes over the neolithic and bronze age time periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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