Resumen de Provenance studies of obsidian artefacts from Armenian archaeological sites using the fission-track analysis
R. Badalian, G. Bigazzi, M.C. Cauvin, C. Chataigner, R. Jrbashyan, S.G. Karapetyan, P. Norelli, M. Oddone, J. L. Poidevin
In the frame o f an INTAS research project numerous Transcaucasian obsidian occurrences were analysed using the fission-track (FT) dating method in order to characterise the potential natural sources ofprehistoric artefacts. The measured plateau FT ages cluster into six restricted groups: 0.042 - 0.120 Ma, 0.25 - 0.40 Ma, 0.43-0.61 Ma, 1.17-1.38 Ma, 1.53 Ma, 2.34 - 2.63 Ma and 4.26 - 4.56 Ma. The data-set o f the potential sources was usedfor identification o f the provenance o f obsidian artefacts from sites representing a large time span, since Mesolithic up to Early Iron Age, distributed all over Armenia. Results prove that most o f the artefacts originatedfrom Armenian obsidians. Only two groups o f ‘foreign ” obsidians from sites located in the NIV and NE corners o f Armenia were attributed to sources located in the adjacent regions o f Turkey and Georgia. This work confirms that the FT dating method is an efficient tool for (i) geochronological studies o f obsidian-bearing volcanics, also in case o f very young rocks, and for (ii) provenance studies ofprehistoric artefacts.
