FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SOURCE. NEOLITHIC PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE OF MONTE ARCI OBSIDIANS (CENTRAL-WESTERN SARDINIA)

The traditional approach to the study of Neolithic in Sardinia has customarily been employing the type analogy, mostly within the field of ceramic production, as a heuris-tic tool in the identification of migratory processes or in-terchange phenomena among different Neolithic com-munities of the Mediterranean West. With regard to this issue – beyond the recently perspectives resulting from the involvement and the application of molecular biology techniques onto anthropic, palaeo-faunistic and palaeo-botanic remains – another way to trace the interaction vec-tors among communities facing the different Mediter-ranean shores results from the characterization and the studies on the provenance of specific raw materials, inte-grated in the analysis of the related technical production systems. Under such perspective, obsidian is certainly one of the most efficient raw materials. Unlike in the Aegean area, the earliest distribution of obsidian in the western Mediterranean can most evidently be correlated with the advance of colonizing waves of the early Neolithic pio-neers. Starting from the beginning of the 6th millennium cal B.C., indeed, obsidian had begun to circulate from the source-islands of Pantelleria, Lipari, Palmarola and Sar-dinia, originating in time the institution and consolidation of exchange networks, mainly following a coastwise and sub-coastal development, rarely penetrating into conti-nental territories for more than 200 km (Lugliè 2009a). Beyond the key indicator represented by this volcanic glass, more structured processes of cultural interaction at a long distance may be perceived, entailing not only the handling of raw materials and artefacts, but also a signif-icant technology and ideological transfer. These guiding principles in interregional relationships would apparently endure throughout the Copper Age, although with a lesser intensity, even when obsidian circulation clearly kept a substantially local value, limited to the source areas