Provenance studies of obsidian artefacts from Armenian archaeological sites using the fission-track analysis

In the frame of an INTAS research project numerous Transcaucasian obsidian occurrences were analysed using the fission-track (FT) dating method in order to characterise the potential natural sources ofprehistoric artefacts. The measured plateau FT ages cluster into six restricted groups: 0.042 - 0.120 Ma, 0.25-0.40 Ma, 0.43 - 0.61 Ma, 1.17- 1.38 Ma, 1.53 Ma, 2.34 - 2.63 Ma and 4.26 - 4.56 Ma. The data-set of the potential sources was usedfor identification ofthe provenance ofobsidian artefactsfrom sites representing a large time span, since Mesolithic up to Early Iron Age, distributed all over Armenia. Results prove that most of the artefacts originatedfrom Armenian obsidians. Only two groups of “foreign ” obsidians from sites located in the NW and NE corners ofArmenia were attributed to sources located in the adjacent regions of Turkey and Georgia. This work confirms that the FT dating method is an efficient tool for (i) geochronological studies of obsidian-bearing volcanics, also in case of very young rocks, and for (ii) provenance studies of prehistoric artefacts