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Lithic movement and exchange across the Adriatic: pXRF analysis and interpretation of prehistoric obsidian and chert in Italy and Croatia

Studies of the direction of lithic movement may contribute significantly to our understanding of the spread of the Neolithic package (domesticated plants and animals, ceramics, year-round settlements) from the eastern Mediterranean westward. In the central and western Mediterranean, the first movement and exchange of obsidian begins at the onset of the Neolithic (ca. 6th millennium B.C.E.), and includes the circulation of these raw materials over 1, 000 kilometers or more from the Aeolian island of Lipari and from the Carpathian sources in northeastern Hungary and Slovakia. Obsidian artifacts have been found at many sites near the coast of Croatia and on many islands in the central Adriatic, suggesting regular maritime transport. On the Tavoliere agricultural plain (surrounding Foggia, Italy) there are hundreds of archaeological sites that suggest a very early introduction of domesticates to peninsular Italy. The nearby Gargano peninsula includes high-quality chert or flint resources, which were intensively, mined starting in the Early Neolithic (ca. 6th millennium B.C.E.), and also thought to have been traded over great distances. Identification of the geological sources of obsidian artifacts found at Mediterranean and European sites is well established, using a variety of analytical methods, but it is mostly in the last several years that the use of non-destructive X-ray fluorescence spectrometers has led to the analysis of large numbers of artifacts in Italy and Croatia. In particular, the use of a portable, hand-held XRF has allowed analyses to be conducted in museums and storage facilities, thus overcoming limitations on destructive sampling and transport to external laboratories. In addition to Lipari and the Carpathians, obsidian from Sardinia, Palmarola, Pantelleria, and possibly Melos has been found at sites in Italy, and pXRF is capable of identifying the specific subsources that were utilized. Far fewer studies have been done on chert sourcing, yet the use of this material along the Adriatic is greater than obsidian. This study combines the analytical results on sourcing obsidian in Croatia and Italy with those from a pilot study sourcing chert. These results are also combined with techno-typological studies of the lithic reduction sequences. The combination of their pathways with other archaeological data is used to address the economic structure of the Neolithic in the central and western Mediterranean.

lithic artifacts; exchange; obsidian; chert; sourcing; xrf; Neolithic; Adriatic

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