The Origin and Exchange of Obsidian From Vinča-Belo Brdo (original) (raw)
Reflections on Volcanic Glass: Proceedings of the 2021 International Obsidian Conference, 2024
Stone tools, although one of the most abundant facets of the archaeological record, have in the past almost exclusively been considered with regards to the transmission of technological traditions or cultural habits, expressed in the presence of “cultures” or “technocomplexes,” and too infrequently studied for their role within economic systems and systems of value. In the European Neolithic research tradition, studies of social organization usually focus on exotic materials such as obsidian, jade, lapis lazuli, spondylus shells, early copper, or elaborate pottery. “Exotic,” in this context, means materials that have a recognizable visual appearance or that occur rarely, and with original sources that are well-known and can be clearly delineated (e.g., one mountain, one mine) or restricted to a small area. In this sense, obsidian provides an excellent opportunity to look closer at the provenance approach to identifying the potential value of material in the past. To systematically examine the quantitative distribution and exchange of obsidian tools and their integration into community-specific systems of value is an approach that will help promote a better understanding of obsidian’s social and economic role in prehistory. For this reason, this chapter focuses on the appearance of obsidian artifacts in a number of different archaeological contexts, including settlement features, burials, and deposits (depots or hoards), to study the various forms of value in the Carpathian Basin.