SESSION 2 – Ancient lithic trade and economics
Kura-Araxes obsidian: sources and trade in the Early Bronze Age

The diffusion of obsidian was mostly shaped by land routes and the regional choices of toolkits. This presentation presents the sources of the obsidian unearthed at chosen key sites and their proportion compared to the amount of flint collected at each. Unlike flint, obsidian enables the production of small tools, including micro-lithics, and that is probably the main reason behind the intensive use of this material, which also gives us clues about the prehistoric economic strategies. The workshop areas at and around the key sites were evaluated, which provided data that can be used to interpret whether raw materials or worked tools were preferred for trade. Different tools manufactured using the raw material from the same source found at different ETC sites are compared, discussing the possibility of ready-to-use tool trade.