Provenience studies of obsidian artifacts from the site Degirmentepe by using fission track ages and trace element analysis

CNRS;Ministere des Relations Exterieures;Conseil Regional de Franche-Comte;Univ de Franche-Comte;Assoc INTERUNEC;et alProceedings of the 6th International Fission Track Dating Workshop --5 September 1988 through 9 September 1988 -- Besancon, Fr --Precise provenience determinations for obsidian artifacts can provide important information concerning contacts among the regions and clues to the nature of the exchange itself. The purpose of the performed study is to find the obsidian sources used by the prehistoric inhabitants of the site Degirmentepe which has the settlements from the Chalcolithic Period going through the Medieval Period. The East Anatolian obsidian occurrences were described and the associated geological samples with the archaeological samples from Degirmentepe were analyzed. The analysis, by electron microprobe and X-ray fluorescence of all samples, was reported. The quantitative evaluation of the results has been supported as control method by fission track data. The fission track analysis method for determination of eruption ages and cultural ages has been applied to the obsidian samples. This obsidian data will be utilized to examine certain hypotheses about cultural development in Anatolia in later studies