ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF OBSIDIAN TOOLS FROM KURDISTAN PROVINCE, IRAN: DETERMINATION OF EXCHANGE PATHS DURING THE CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD

Abstract

A collection of Chalcolithic period obsidian artefacts from the sites of Namashir, Ghazikhan and Galali in Kurdistan province, Iran, were studied by X-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analysis. All of the arte-facts were found to have originated from sources in Anatolia and Armenia. The source of Early to Late Chal-colithic 1 artefacts recovered from the site of Namashir was Meydan Dağ. The source of Late Chalcolithic 1 artefacts from the site of Galali was Nemrut Dağ. During the Late Chalcolithic 2, the sites received obsidian from multiple sources and the number of importing paths also increased. Changes in the sources of cultural materials can reveal their paths as well.