Volume 53 BGSG Research Paper OBSIDIAN IN THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN: TRADE AND Correspondence to: Mailinta Tsampiri USES
[email protected] 1 DOI number: Mailinta Tsampiri http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/ bgsg.18588 1 Archaeologist, S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. Keywords: Collaborator of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades in excavations in Melos Obsidian, Aegean, Melos, Blade, Giali, Phylakopi. Pansedon (3201) - Porto Rafti, Attica, Greece Email:
[email protected] Citation: Tsampiri Mailinta (2018), Obsidian in the prehistoric Aegean: Trade and uses. Abstract Bulletin Geological Society of Greece, 53, 28- 49. This paper studies the prehistoric use of obsidian quarries in the Aegean. Obsidian sources in the eastern Mediterranean have been traced on certain Publication History: islands of the Aegean: Melos, Antiparos and Giali. Due to its hardness, this Received: 24/09/2018 material was already being used by the end of the Upper Palaeolithic to produce Accepted: 03/10/2018 Accepted article online: blades with sharp edges to serve as knives, scrapers and razors, arrowheads 03/10/2018 and spears, axes, saws and mattocks. This naturally occurring glass was also used for ornamental purposes. During the Late and the Final Neolithic Period The Editor wishes to thank Prof. M. Stamatakis, Prof. (ca. 5300-3200 B.C.), when the systematic habitation of the Cyclades developed, Hara Drinia and Ms Erietta the transportation of obsidian was incorporated in the gradually developing Vlachou for editorial assistance. trade networks of the Aegean. The material was much in demand in the early Bronze Age. During the later Bronze Age its use declined and by the classical ©2018.