Récents acquis sur la circulation préhistorique de l'obsidienne en Corse

Abstract

Obsidian represents one of the best markers for exchanges between prehistoric communities. In the Western Mediterranean, Corsica has a particular situation: although more than 100 km from the nearest obsidian source, the island received important quantities of obsidian, especially during the 4th millennium BC. Indeed, for that period, there were thousands of these obsidian items, which represent more than 75% of the lithic artefacts of each assemblage studied. The available data show that Corsican communities mostly received laminar cores, already partially knapped. The same assemblages present, however, a clear deficit in cores, suggesting that most of them then left these sites before being fully exploited. This article provides a survey of research and knowledge to date, over the various chronological periods, regarding the origins of the exploited obsidian and the technical aspects of the relevant productions. At the end of the article, the data thus gathered is included in a wider debate on the possible modes of distribution of this obsidian in Corsica. The hypothesis of the establishment of "knapper pedlar” networks between Sardinia and Corsica during the 4th millennium BC is brought forward, although not yet fully validated and accepted.

SEM-EDS characterization of western Mediterranean obsidians and the Neolithic site of A Fuata (Corsica)

“…In Corsica, except for one sample (Salotti et al, 2000), all Neolithic provenance studies pointed toward Sardinia for the origin of archaeological obsidians, as reviewed by Costa (2006; see also Bressy et al, 2008;Paolini-Saez et al, in press). It was therefore important to determine as precisely as possible the accessibility and internal variability of this raw material's elemental composition for each of this island's sources.…”

“…It must in effect be reminded that the Lipari obsidians were principally 'exported' as laminar products (Ammerman et al, 1990;Tykot et al, 2005b) obtained by pressure (Lugliè , 2009). (2001); 2, Weiss (1984); 3, Magdeleine and Ottaviani (1986); 4, Sicurani (2008); 5, Bressy et al (2008); 6, Costa (2001); 7, Bontempi (1999); 8, Magdeleine (1995); 9, Nebbia and Ottaviani (1993); 10, Tramoni and Chessa (1998);11 Camps (1988); 12, Marini et al (2007); 13, Costa (2006); 14, Radi and Bovenzi (2007) …”

Holocene environmental history of a small Mediterranean island in response to sea-level changes, climate and human impact

“…8000 to 6000 B.P.) Weiss, 1972, 1977;Pêche-Quilichini and Bertocco, economic connections between Corsica and Sardinia (Costa, 2006;Le Bourdonnec et al, 2011). However, the first human presence in the Lavezzi archipelago is believed to have occurred during Chalcolithic time (ca.…”

Blade production and the consumption of obsidian in Stentinello period Neolithic Sicily

“…Regardless, it is unlikely that each Stentinello settlement in Sicily had a person with the expertise and esoteric knowledge required to create such wide pressure flaked blades (see Pélegrin, 2012), a situation mirroring other Neolithic contexts in Corsica and the Aegean, where scholars have argued for the presence of skilled itinerant knappers who moved from village to village offering their services (Costa, 2006;Perlès, 1990). While the presence of itinerant knappers in Sicily is possible, more data from a wider cross section of well-excavated sites are needed to properly test this hypothesis.…”

“…A central conclusion drawn from these analyses is that multiple knapping traditions existed across the West Mediterranean region over the course of the Neolithic, including pressure-flaked blade industries in southern France and Corsica (Bressy et al, 2008;Costa, 2006;Léa, 2012), direct percussion blade technology in southern Italy (Diamond and Ammerman, 1985), and flake-based industries in Sardinia (Freund, 2014;Lugliè et al, 2008). Nevertheless, these conclusions are based on a small number of total analyses and there is still much work to be done in terms of understanding how and where obsidian was acquired, reduced, and consequently used.…”