Social Interaction at Distance Over the Long Term: Obsidian Sourcing from the Southern Levant (9th – 4th millennia cal BC)

Summary

The McMaster Archaeological XRF Lab is dedicated to undertaking major regional obsidian sourcing studies, not least in the Eastern Mediterranean where we have the North American geological source sample collection. We take a holistic, integrated approach, melding chemical composition with the artefacts’ techno-typological characteristics, contextual information and other pertinent data to produce ‘thick description’ narratives. In this case we consider obsidian circulation and consumption amongst Southern Levantine populations over five millennia, from Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to the Early Bronze Age (9th-4th cal millennia BC).

Artefacts were analysed using EDXRF spectrometry from Nahala Lavan 109, Beisamoun, Sha’ar Hagolan, Ein el Jarba, Tell Tsaf, Tell Ali and Marj Rabba. Sourcing data is then located within a broader Levantine, South-East Anatolian and Mesopotamian context using Social Network Analysis. The results show that while the relative quantities of these exotic products (closest sources >800km distant) in circulation did not change significantly, the range of raw materials increased significantly through time, from an initial reliance on central Anatolian products, to the use of central, eastern and north-eastern Anatolian and Armenian obsidian. The expanded socio-economic networks that underpinned these Southern Levantine communities’ access to obsidian are interrogated with regard to larger cultural dynamics of these periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Foundations for Innovation: The Legacies and Influences of Archaeological Science at McMaster

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16909