28362
Accession Number
32510
Title Of Article Chaper
Bridging the Gap Between Two Obsidian Source Areas in Northeast Asia: LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Obsidian Artefacts from the Kurile Islands of the Russian Fart East
Title Of Journal Book
Crossing the Straits: Prehistoric Obsidian Source Exploitation in the North Pacific Rim
Pages
121-136
Collation
16 p. : ills.
Reference Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Monograph
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
Recent archaeological excavations in the Kurile Islands of the Russian Far East have recovered almost 2000 obsidian artefacts in the form of finished stone tools and flake debitage. While artefacts made of obsidian are present throughout the island chain, obsidian native to the Kurile Islands is not known to have been used prehistorically. An initial source provenance study of Kurile Island artefacts indicated that obsidian raw material was brought into the islands at least 2500 years ago from sources located on the Japanese island of Hokkaido and from the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russian Far East). This chapter reports on a larger provenance study using Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled-Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) that expands the initial research and provides the largest sample to date of obsidian artefacts from the Kurile Islands that can be assigned to obsidian source groups located in Northeast Asia. Identifying the sources used to produce obsidian artefacts is a key element necessary for reconstructing prehistoric Kurile Island migrations, colonisation events, and social network structures.
Keywords
obsidian;sourcing;archaeology;artifact
pub_id
28362