Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:58:19.445Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Further Analysis of Near Eastern Obsidians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Colin Renfrew ,
J. E. Dixon  and
J. R. Cann
Colin Renfrew
Affiliation:
Department of Ancient History, University of Sheffield
J. E. Dixon
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Cambridge
J. R. Cann
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, British Museum (Natural History)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The very early development and extent of the obsidian trade in the Near East is being increasingly documented by the discovery and excavation of Early Neolithic sites throughout the area. Since the publication of our last paper (Renfrew, Cann and Dixon, 1966), obsidians from five aceramic Neolithic sites have been analysed, and the natural source of the material determined in each case. All the results fall into the framework of groups already established. In addition, one new obsidian source has been discovered.

This confirmation of the characterizations hitherto achieved is satisfactory, but perhaps more important is the new evidence for the reconstruction of the pattern of the trade or traffic in obsidian in Early Neolithic times. Regularities in this pattern are becoming apparent, which allow a greater insight into the trading mechanisms involved.

In this paper, written by Colin Renfrew on the basis of analyses and group divisions by J. E. Dixon and J. R. Cann, new information concerning the Anatolian sources is first considered, and new results for the Early Neolithic and later obsidians discussed. In the last section, an attempt is made at the more precise definition of the obsidian trading pattern in the 7th and 6th millennia B.C. on the basis of a more detailed analysis of the prehistoric trade statistics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 34 , February 1969 , pp. 319 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bean, G. E. and Cook, J. M., 1955. ‘The Halicarnassus peninsula’, Ann. B.S.A. Athens, 50, 108 and 118.Google Scholar
Beekman, P. H., 1966. ‘The Pliocene and Quaternary volcanism in the Hasan Dağ-Melendiz Dağ region’, Bull., Mineral Res. and Expl. Inst. Turkey, 66, 90f.Google Scholar
Bordaz, J., 1966. ‘Recent archaeological research in Turkey—Suberde’, Anatolian Studies, XVI, 32.Google Scholar
Contenson, H. de, 1966. ‘Découvertes récentes dans le domaine du Néolithique en Syrie—Bouqras’, Syria, XLIII, 152.Google Scholar
Dikaios, P., 1953. Khirokitia.Google Scholar
Gløb, P. V. and Bibby, T. G., 1960. ‘A forgotten civilization of the Persian Gulf’, Scientific American, October, 62.Google Scholar
Gordus, A. A., Wright, G. A. and Griffin, J. B., 1968. ‘Obsidian sources characterised by neutronactivation analysis’, Science 161, 382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hole, F. and Flannery, K. V., forthcoming. Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain (Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology).Google Scholar
Kirkbride, D., 1966. ‘Five seasons at the pre-pottery Neolithic village of Beidha, Jordan’, Pal. Expl. Quart., Jan.-June, 8f.Google Scholar
Mallowan, M. E. L., 1965. ‘The mechanism of trade in western Asia’, Iran, III, 1f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellink, M. J., 1965. ‘Archaeology in Asia Minor’, Am. J. Archaeology, 69, 138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrot, J., 1962. ‘Palestine—Syria—Cilicia’ in Braidwood, R. J. and Willey, G. R. (eds.) Courses Towards Urban Life (Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 32)Google Scholar
Perrot, J., 1964. ‘Les deux premières campagnes de fouilles à Munhatta’, Syria, XLI, 323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C., Cann, J. R. and Dixon, J. E., 1965, ‘Obsidian in the Aegean’, Ann. B.S.A. Athens, 60, 225.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., Dixon, J. E. and Cann, J. R., 1966. ‘Obsidian and early cultural contact in the Near East’, Proc. Prehist. Soc., XXXII, 30f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobler, A. J., 1950. Excavations at Tepe Gawra, 11.Google Scholar
Todd, I. A., 1966, ‘Asılklı Hüyük—a protoneolithic site in Central Anatolia’, Anatolian Studies, XVI, 139f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar