Su NovoScriptorium un post che testimonia il commercio di ossidiana nel periodo preistorico, in particolare nel Neolitico, nel quadrante nordovest turco. Un estratto in inglese, per me significativo in questo momento perché cita l’ossidiana, che torna continuamente da alcune ore.
In this post we present selected parts of the very interesting paper titled “Melian obsidian in NW Turkey: Evidence for early Neolithic trade”, by Catherine Perlès, Turan Takaoğlu and Bernard Gratuze (2011).
“The Cycladic island of Melos was the main source of obsidian in the Aegean world. This raw material was exploited and distributed throughout the region from the Final Palaeolithic period until the Bronze Age (Carter 2009; Runnels 1983; Torrence 1986). (…) In the Early and Middle Neolithic of Greece (ca. 6600–5800 CAL B.C.), obsidian trade appears to have been in the hands of itinerant specialists who were both seafarers and skilled knappers; they were responsible for the exploitation of the Melian quarries and for the production and distribution of obsidian blades and bladelets (Perlès 1990a, 2004). (…) The presence of obsidian in the Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic deposits at Franchthi Cave, four millennia earlier, shows, however, that knowledge of both navigation techniques and the island’s resources was established well before the onset of the Neolithic (Perlès 1987, 1990b). (…) Melian obsidian artifacts have been identified at numerous Early Neolithic sites (ca. 6800–6000 CAL B.C.) on the Greek mainland and on some Aegean islands (Perlès 2001; Torrence 1986). More recently, several Early Neolithic sites in western Turkey have yielded obsidian from Melos and demonstrate that its distribution extended to the eastern side of the Aegean Sea. (…) New archaeological excavations conducted at Early Neolithic sites dated to ca. 6500 CAL B.C., such as Yeşilova, Ege Gübre, Ulucak, Araptepe, and Dedecik-Heybelitepe in the Izmir region shed new light on the Neolithization of west-central Turkey (Çilingiroğlu and Çilingiroğlu 2007; Derin 2007; Derin et al. 2009; Sağlamtimur 2007; Lichter 2002; Lichter and Meriç 2007). Several of these sites have yielded Melian obsidian, sometimes in large quantities (Lichter and Meriç 2007).
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