Obsidian Sources in the Regions of Kars (NE TURKEY): New Data in Chemical Analyses

The obsidian sources on the Erzurum-Kars plateau have not been extensively surveyed, and their geochemical signatures are still poorly understood. Yet a significant number of artefacts from archaeological sites in Georgia and Armenia produced chemical compositions that are unrelated to any Turkish or Caucasian source analyzed so far. Their origins may lie in these poorly known deposits. The objective of the collaborative project held by the University of Erzurum and the French mission "Caucasus" is to study the sources of obsidian in the Erzurum and Kars regions, in order to shed light on the intensity of exploitation of this material and to highlight the exchange networks that may have existed between north-eastern Turkey and the southern Caucasus. The analyses that we have carried out on the samples taken during this exploratory survey have enabled a definite extension of the territory of circulation of this obsidian to western Transcaucasia. The lack of knowledge concerning the diffusion of obsidian from the regions of Erzurum and Kars appears thus for the moment mainly related to insufficient geochemical characterisation of the sources, confirming the importance of future surveys.