Tracing the source of obsidian from prehistoric sites in Bulgaria

Clive Bonsall; Maria Gurova; Nedko Elenski; Georgi Ivanov; Aneta Bakamska; Georgi Ganetsovski; Radka Zlateva-Uzanova; Vladimir Slavchev

Tracing the source of obsidian from prehistoric sites in Bulgaria

Clive Bonsall, Maria Gurova, Nedko Elenski, Georgi Ivanov, Aneta Bakamska, Georgi Ganetsovski, Radka Zlateva-Uzanova, Vladimir Slavchev

School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry was used to obtain source determinations for 11 obsidian artefacts from five archaeological sites in Bulgaria. The results show that all the archaeological specimens can be linked to obsidian sources in the Carpathian Mountains in the border region between Hungary and Slovakia. Obsidian from the C2E source in Hungary occurred in very early Neolithic contexts at Dzhulyunitsa, while the majority of samples from later contexts at Ohoden, Dzherman and Varna came mainly from the Slovakian (C1) source. The data hint at a shift from the use of C2 obsidian in the Neolithic before 5900 cal BC, to a preference for C1 obsidian in later periods – however, more finds and better contextual and chronological data are required to verify this trend.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	37-59
Journal	Bulgarian e-Journal of Archeology (Be-JA)
Volume	7
Issue number	1
Publication status	Published - 26 Jun 2017

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Bulgaria
Early Neolithic
Late Chalcolithic
Obsidian
pXRF
source determination

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Bonsall-et-al-2017-Tracing-source-obsidanFinal published version, 2.08 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

http://be-ja.org/?articles=tracing-the-source-of-obsidian-from-prehistoric-sites-in-bulgaria

Cite this

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title = "Tracing the source of obsidian from prehistoric sites in Bulgaria",

abstract = "Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry was used to obtain source determinations for 11 obsidian artefacts from five archaeological sites in Bulgaria. The results show that all the archaeological specimens can be linked to obsidian sources in the Carpathian Mountains in the border region between Hungary and Slovakia. Obsidian from the C2E source in Hungary occurred in very early Neolithic contexts at Dzhulyunitsa, while the majority of samples from later contexts at Ohoden, Dzherman and Varna came mainly from the Slovakian (C1) source. The data hint at a shift from the use of C2 obsidian in the Neolithic before 5900 cal BC, to a preference for C1 obsidian in later periods – however, more finds and better contextual and chronological data are required to verify this trend.",

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T1 - Tracing the source of obsidian from prehistoric sites in Bulgaria

AU - Bonsall, Clive

AU - Gurova, Maria

AU - Elenski, Nedko

AU - Ivanov, Georgi

AU - Bakamska, Aneta

AU - Ganetsovski, Georgi

AU - Zlateva-Uzanova, Radka

AU - Slavchev, Vladimir

PY - 2017/6/26

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N2 - Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry was used to obtain source determinations for 11 obsidian artefacts from five archaeological sites in Bulgaria. The results show that all the archaeological specimens can be linked to obsidian sources in the Carpathian Mountains in the border region between Hungary and Slovakia. Obsidian from the C2E source in Hungary occurred in very early Neolithic contexts at Dzhulyunitsa, while the majority of samples from later contexts at Ohoden, Dzherman and Varna came mainly from the Slovakian (C1) source. The data hint at a shift from the use of C2 obsidian in the Neolithic before 5900 cal BC, to a preference for C1 obsidian in later periods – however, more finds and better contextual and chronological data are required to verify this trend.

AB - Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry was used to obtain source determinations for 11 obsidian artefacts from five archaeological sites in Bulgaria. The results show that all the archaeological specimens can be linked to obsidian sources in the Carpathian Mountains in the border region between Hungary and Slovakia. Obsidian from the C2E source in Hungary occurred in very early Neolithic contexts at Dzhulyunitsa, while the majority of samples from later contexts at Ohoden, Dzherman and Varna came mainly from the Slovakian (C1) source. The data hint at a shift from the use of C2 obsidian in the Neolithic before 5900 cal BC, to a preference for C1 obsidian in later periods – however, more finds and better contextual and chronological data are required to verify this trend.

KW - Bulgaria

KW - Early Neolithic

KW - Late Chalcolithic

KW - Obsidian

KW - pXRF

KW - source determination

M3 - Article

SN - 1314-5088

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ER -

Tracing the source of obsidian from prehistoric sites in Bulgaria

Abstract

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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