Characterization of the Obsidian Used in the Chipped Stone Industry in Kendale Hecala

MUŞKARA Ü., KONAK A.

Quaternary, cilt.5, sa.1, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 5 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/quat5010003
  • Dergi Adı: Quaternary
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Upper Tigris, obsidian sourcing, pXRF, Nemrut Dag, Group 3d, Ubaid, NEUTRON-ACTIVATION ANALYSIS, PROVENANCE RESEARCH, PXRF ANALYSIS, PORTABLE XRF, NEAR-EAST, SYRIA, IRAN, IDENTIFICATION, ARTIFACTS, TURKEY
  • Kocaeli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Kendale Hecala is located on the Ambar River in the Upper Tigris Basin, province of Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia. Various raw materials, including obsidian, radiolarite, chert, jasper, chalcedony, and quartzite, were used in the lithic industry. Obsidian artefacts constitute an average of 64% of the chipped stone assemblage. Technological analysis reveals that obsidian was brought to the settlement as nodules and chipped into various tools at the settlement. Understanding the operational sequence of the lithic industry, chaîne opératoire, including the distribution of raw material from source to site, is important to demonstrate the socio-cultural organization of the settlement in Southeastern Anatolia during the Ubaid period. In order to identify source varieties, the obsidian artefacts uncovered from Ubaid layers of Kendale Hecala were analyzed by macro-observations, and the characterization of archaeological samples was performed using a handheld XRF. Multivariate analysis of the data indicates the use of obsidian from different resources at the settlement, including Nemrut Dağ, Bingöl B, and Group 3d.