Datation par traces de fission et étude de provenance d'artefacts en obsidienne des sites archéologiques de la Tolita (Equateur) et Inguapi (Colombie)

Abstract

Nous avons daté par la méthode des traces de fission de l'Uranium onze artefacts en obsidienne provenant de deux sites côtiers : La Tolita (Nord-Équateur, 8 artefacts) et Inguapi (Sud-Colombie, 3 artefacts). Quatre groupes d'âges se dégagent de cette analyse, respectivement vers 0,25-0,30 Ma (six échantillons de La Tolita, un d'Inguapi), 0,42 Ma (La Tolita), 1,65 Ma (La Tolita) et 2,59 Ma (Inguapi). Les implications de la présence de trois de ces groupes d'âges dans les obsidiennes de la Sierra équatorienne et colombienne sont discutées en termes d'origine pour la matière première de ces artefacts.

Obsidian provenance studies in Colombia and Ecuador: obsidian sources revisited

“…Another method of sourcing archaeological obsidians is from the determination of their formation age by fission track (FT) dating, as e.g. in Ecuador (Miller and Wagner, 1981;Arias et al, 1986;Bigazzi et al, 1992;Dorighel et al, 1994Dorighel et al, , 1998.…”

Provenance study of obsidians from the archaeological site of La Maná (Ecuador) by electron spin resonance (ESR), SQUID magnetometry and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy

“…until the Spanish conquest (sixteenth century). In Ecuador, nearly all archaeological obsidians come from the sources of the Sierra de Guamani [1][2][3][4].…”

“…In Ecuador, earlier obsidian provenance studies were based on elemental composition [1] fission track (FT) dating [2] or both [3,4]. We introduce here a new approach, using electron spin resonance (ESR), SQUID magnetometry and 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy ( 57 Fe-MS), which already proved their capabilities for obsidian provenance studies in the Western Mediterranean area [5][6][7].…”

Magnetic properties and electron spin resonance of Ecuadorian obsidians. Application to provenance research of archeological samples

“…In Ecuador, earlier obsidian provenance studies were based on elemental composition [1], fission track (FT) dating [2] or both [3,4]. We introduce here a new approach, using electron spin resonance (ESR) and SQUID magnetometry, which already proved their capabilities for obsidian provenance studies in the Western Mediterranean area [5][6][7].…”

“…We introduce here a new approach, using electron spin resonance (ESR) and SQUID magnetometry, which already proved their capabilities for obsidian provenance studies in the Western Mediterranean area [5][6][7]. This first test-program compares archeological samples from the prehispanic site of La Mana´ [8] to source samples whose FT age and/or elemental composition were previously determined [2][3][4]9,10].…”