The growth of early social networks: New geochemical results of obsidian from the Ubaid to Chalcolithic Period in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf

Khalidi, Lamya; Gratuze, Bernard; Stein, Gil J.; McMahon, Augusta; Al-Quntar, Salam; Robert, Caroline; Cuttler, Richard; Drechsler, Philipp; Healey, Elizabeth; Inizan, Marie-Louise; Mouralis, Damase; Pernicka, Ernst; Robin, Anne-Kyria

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.06.026

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…At Arpachiyah in northern Iraq, Nemrut Dağ, Bingöl A and B all provide significant quantities of obsidian. However, both the previous analysis of obsidian from the site (Renfrew et al, 1966;Renfrew et al, 1968;Forster and Grave, 2012;Khalidi et al, 2016) and the larger sample that we have studied more recently suggest that Meydan Dağ was also a major supplier. By the 3 rd and 2 nd millennia cal BC in Mesopotamia, Armenian sources such as Syunik, previously very rare, also seem to become significant suppliers.…”

Section: Minority Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Interpretative models of obsidian distribution have tended to portray obsidian use as long-term trends (e.g., Renfrew et al, 1968;Renfrew, 1975Khalidi et al, 2016). While that may partially be true, we need to be aware that this has also been an assumption required to allow us to generalise from limited samples.…”

Section: Major Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the perspective of a whole site, this is not immediately apparent. Previous studies of the obsidian from Umm Dabaghiyah in northern Iraq involved the provenance analysis of seven artefacts, all 'informally' collected from the surface of the site (three artefacts in Hall and Shackley, 1994; four artefacts in Khalidi et al, 2016). This determined that four artefacts were of obsidian from Nemrut Dağ, two from Bingöl B and one from Bingöl A.…”

Section: Major Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diversity in obsidian use in the prehistoric and early historic Middle East

Campbell¹,

Healey²

2018

Quaternary International

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The presence of obsidian in the Near East has always evoked a response about its exotic nature and origins. It was not until 1960s, however, that this was put onto a scientific footing when Colin Renfrew and his collaborators began to explore obsidian in Turkey and the Mediterranean. Their characterisation of the sources allowed them to attribute artefacts to different sources and suggest models of dispersal and distribution. Since then considerably more artefacts have been attributed to sources, although mostly only small numbers from individual sites; this has led to various interpretations of how obsidian was obtained and used; new studies have considered least cost path analysis, network analysis and agent based modelling. Increasingly, new methods of provenancing of artefacts have also meant that large number of artefacts can be analysed relatively speedily and efficiently. Portable instruments allow data to be collected outside laboratories, avoiding restrictions imposed by export licenses or simplifying work on museum collections. Here we employ richness and diversity indexes to elucidate some of the patterns in obsidian source use and argue that there are several reasons why the provenancing of large proportions of assemblages will be critical in exploiting the true potential of obsidian studies in the Near East, even though the initial haphazard, small sample approach has been quite effective in sketching out the big picture.

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Section: Minority Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Major Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Major Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diversity in obsidian use in the prehistoric and early historic Middle East

Campbell¹,

Healey²

2018

Quaternary International

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“…Meydan Dağ obsidian, which Renfrew et al. ( 14 ) knew as the unlocated “Group 3a” obsidian from principally post-Neolithic sites, has recently been reported in Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic contexts ( 24 , 25 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…New models, no matter how sophisticated, built primarily on decades-old data ( 42 , 43 ) will carry forward their flaws. Fortunately, we are not alone in collecting obsidian data for the Neolithic Near East ( 24 , 26 , 27 , 44 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the origins of obsidian artifacts in the Deh Luran Plain (Southwestern Iran) highlights community connections in the Neolithic Zagros

Frahm

Carolus

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Exchange networks created by Neolithic pastoral transhumance have been central to explaining the distant transport of obsidian since chemical analysis was first used to attribute Near Eastern artifacts to their volcanic origins in the 1960s. Since then, critical reassessments of floral, faunal, and chronological data have upended long-held interpretations regarding the emergence of food production and have demonstrated that far-traveled, nomadic pastoralists were more myth than reality, at least during the Neolithic. Despite debates regarding their proposed conveyance mechanisms, obsidian artifacts’ transport has received relatively little attention compared with zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical lines of investigation. The rise of nondestructive and portable instruments permits entire obsidian assemblages to be traced to their sources, renewing their significance in elucidating connections among early pastoral and agricultural communities. Here we share our findings about the obsidian artifacts excavated from the sites of Ali Kosh and Chagha Sefid in the southern Zagros. In the 1960s and 1970s, 28 obsidian artifacts from the sites were destructively tested, and the remainder were sorted by color. Our results emphasize a dynamic, accelerating connectivity among the Early and Late Neolithic communities. Here we propose and support an alternative model for obsidian distribution among more settled communities. In brief, diversity in the obsidian assemblage accelerated diachronically, an invisible trend in the earlier studies. Our model of increasing population densities is supported by archaeological data and computational simulations, offering insights regarding the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Zagros, an equivalent of which is commonly thought to have occurred around the world.

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Modelling land and water based movement corridors in the Western Mediterranean: a least cost path analysis from chalcolithic and early bronze age ivory records

Bilotti,

Kempf,

Morillo Leon

2024

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The transportation of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age ivory raw materials and artefacts across the Mediterranean has been in the focus of archaeological research for over a century now. However, tracing the flow of ivory has mostly been restricted to traditional theoretical models of raw materials distribution deriving from socio-culturally centred considerations. Environmental conditions, potential transportation networks and dissemination routes have not yet been considered decisive for the spread of ivory raw material from the African shores and the eastern Mediterranean towards the Iberian Peninsula. Implementing computational environmental and archaeological modelling, we present a fully reproducible quantitative approach to estimate potential communication and transportation networks based on environmental covariates. We deploy a Network Analysis model and a predictive model based on Least Cost Path density to propose a potential land- and sea-based movement corridor for the western Mediterranean Basin that could have enabled the cultural spread of resources during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Using the presented model and the open-source data underlying the analyses, distribution patterns of multiple material resources from different chronological subsets or regions can be developed, which will contribute to understanding prehistoric human patterns across the Mediterranean.

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The growth of early social networks: New geochemical results of obsidian from the Ubaid to Chalcolithic Period in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf

Abstract: International audienc

Cited by 9 publications

References 32 publications

Diversity in obsidian use in the prehistoric and early historic Middle East

Diversity in obsidian use in the prehistoric and early historic Middle East

Identifying the origins of obsidian artifacts in the Deh Luran Plain (Southwestern Iran) highlights community connections in the Neolithic Zagros

Modelling land and water based movement corridors in the Western Mediterranean: a least cost path analysis from chalcolithic and early bronze age ivory records

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