Reassessing obsidian field relationships at Glass Buttes, Oregon

Frahm, Ellery; Feinberg, Joshua M.

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2014.11.007

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Our pXRF data also confirm these obsidian source identifications (Figure 11). These four trace elements --Nb, Sr, Rb, and Zr -are very well measured using pXRF, exhibiting the greatest repeatability and reproducibility (e.g., Grave et al, 2011;Frahm and Feinberg, 2015). The EMPA and pXRF values used to produce these scatterplots are available in Table 2 and Supplementary Table D, respectively.…”

Section: -New Domuztepe Sourcing Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A subset of the artifacts (43 of 66; i.e., those still available for analysis) were subsequently analyzed by portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), specifically a Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t GOLDD instrument at the University of Minnesota, as an independent means to corroborate our obsidian source identifications. The use of pXRF in obsidian artifact sourcing is now well attested worldwide (see Frahm, 2014b;Frahm and Feinberg, 2015; and the references within). The instrument that we used has a miniaturized 50-kV, Ag-anode X-ray tube.…”

Section: -Methods and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Others have noted similar issues. For example, Cherry (1968) reports that obsidians from Glass Buttes in Oregon had indistinguishable refractive indices, but many different obsidian compositions exist there (Frahm and Feinberg, 2015). Studies in the Caucasus (Nasedkin and Formozov, 1965;Arazova and Mamedov, 1979) established that refractive indices for an obsidian source can vary significantly and that different obsidian sources can have nearly identical indices.…”

Section: -Gutansar Obsidian At Arslantepe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Caucasus connections? New data and interpretations for Armenian obsidian in Northern Mesopotamia

Frahm

Campbell

Healey

2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Contact across long distances is evident in the Neolithic of the Near East, whether driven by social networks, exchange links, or movement of individuals or populations. Movement of material, such as obsidian, can elucidate these processes but is often studied within a bounded world that places Mesopotamia at the center. This paper focuses on links that cut across the traditionally imposed boundaries between Northern Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. While Armenia is one of the world's most obsidian-rich landscapes, reports of Armenian obsidians in Northern Mesopotamia are scarce. The confirmation (or lack thereof) of these rare reports has important consequences regarding the movement of people, material, and information out of the Caucasus. As discussed here, all but one report either cannot be corroborated or are demonstrably erroneous. For one archaeological site, data processing methods led to overlaps in the signals for different obsidian sources. For another site, one element used in source identification suffered from unsystematic error. For other sites, data and key details went unpublished at the time. To corroborate past work that had identified Armenian obsidian at Domuztepe, 66 artifacts were newly sourced by electron microprobe analysis and confirmed by portable X-ray fluorescence. This sample was biased toward artifacts potentially from Armenia. Our analyses revealed that 15 artifacts match Pokr Arteni, one of the most used

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Section: -New Domuztepe Sourcing Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: -Methods and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: -Gutansar Obsidian At Arslantepe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Caucasus connections? New data and interpretations for Armenian obsidian in Northern Mesopotamia

Frahm

Campbell

Healey

2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…These data were further corrected using fundamental parameters (FP), which adjusts measurements for other phenomena that occur within a specimen (e.g., X-ray absorption, secondary fluorescence). Our calibration is based on a suite of 24 obsidian custom standards characterized by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laboratory-based XRF at the University of Missouri's Research Reactor and by electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) at the University of Minnesota (see Frahm, 2014, Frahm et al, 2014b, and Frahm and Feinberg, 2015. This approach has been shown to yield high accuracy and sensitivity (Frahm, 2014;Frahm et al, 2014b;Frahm and Feinberg, 2015).…”

Section: Geochemical Sourcing Of Lkt1 Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our calibration is based on a suite of 24 obsidian custom standards characterized by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laboratory-based XRF at the University of Missouri's Research Reactor and by electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) at the University of Minnesota (see Frahm, 2014, Frahm et al, 2014b, and Frahm and Feinberg, 2015. This approach has been shown to yield high accuracy and sensitivity (Frahm, 2014;Frahm et al, 2014b;Frahm and Feinberg, 2015). Routine measurements of larger artifacts often take 10-40 seconds using our methods; however, for this study, each measurement took 60 seconds in order to attain suitable counting statistics using the small-spot collimator.…”

Section: Geochemical Sourcing Of Lkt1 Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle Palaeolithic toolstone procurement behaviors at Lusakert Cave 1, Hrazdan valley, Armenia

Frahm

Feinberg

Schmidt-Magee

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Evolution

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Strategies employed by Middle Palaeolithic hominins to acquire lithic raw materials often play key roles in assessing their movements through the landscape, relationships with neighboring groups, and cognitive abilities. It has been argued that a dependence on local resources is a widespread characteristic of the Middle Palaeolithic, but how such behaviors were manifested on the landscape remains unclear. Does an abundance of local toolstone reflect frequent encounters with different outcrops while foraging, or was a particular outcrop favored and preferentially quarried? This study examines such behaviors at a finer geospatial scale than is usually possible, allowing us to investigate hominin movements through the landscape surrounding Lusakert Cave 1 in Armenia. Using our newly developed approach to obsidian magnetic characterization, we test a series of hypotheses regarding the locations where hominins procured toolstone from a volcanic complex adjacent to the site. Our goal is to establish whether the cave's occupants procured local obsidian from preferred outcrops or quarries, secondary deposits of obsidian nodules along a river, or a variety of exposures as encountered while moving through the river valley or across the wider volcanic landscape during the course of foraging activities. As we demonstrate here, it is not the case that one particular outcrop or deposit attracted the cave occupants during the studied time intervals. Nor did they acquire obsidian at random across the landscape. Instead, our analyses support the hypothesis that these hominins collected obsidian from outcrops and exposures throughout the adjacent river valley, reflecting the spatial scale of their day-to-day foraging activities. The coincidence of such behaviors within the resource-rich river valley suggests efficient exploitation of a diverse biome during a time interval immediately preceding the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic "transition," the nature and timing of which has yet to be determined for the region.

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Gods and demons, Anatolia and Egypt: Obsidian sourcing of Mesopotamian amulets and cylinder seals using portable XRF

Frahm

Lassen

Wagensonner

2019

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Reassessing obsidian field relationships at Glass Buttes, Oregon

Cited by 8 publications

References 60 publications

Caucasus connections? New data and interpretations for Armenian obsidian in Northern Mesopotamia

Caucasus connections? New data and interpretations for Armenian obsidian in Northern Mesopotamia

Middle Palaeolithic toolstone procurement behaviors at Lusakert Cave 1, Hrazdan valley, Armenia

Gods and demons, Anatolia and Egypt: Obsidian sourcing of Mesopotamian amulets and cylinder seals using portable XRF

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