Tool sharpens focus on Stone Age networking in the Middle East. Implement found in Syria was chipped out of obsidian deposit hundreds of kilometers away

[rangerrebew]

Tool sharpens focus on Stone Age networking in the Middle East
Implement found in Syria was chipped out of obsidian deposit hundreds of kilometers away
By
Bruce Bower
7:00am, May 23, 2017
 

A stone tool found in Syria more than 80 years ago has sharpened scientists’ understanding of Stone Age networking.

Small enough to fit in the palm of an adult’s hand, this chipped piece of obsidian dates to between 41,000 and 32,000 years ago, say archaeologists Ellery Frahm and Thomas Hauck. It was fashioned out of volcanic rock from outcrops in central Turkey, a minimum of 700 kilometers from where the artifact was found, the researchers report in the June Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Until now, the earliest transport of obsidian into the Middle East was thought to have occurred between 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, when Natufian foragers began to live in year-round settlements (SN: 9/25/10, p. 14).

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tool-sharpens-focus-stone-age-networking-middle-east?mode=topic&context=49&tgt=nr

[Smokin Joe]

One of the neat things about my wandering as a geologist is finding the occasional archaeological site. There is an area in Nevada, north of Elko, that has a beautiful welded tuff. It's fairly distinctive, but I have found flakes of it on the flanks of Whistler Mountain, roughly 100 miles away. Really good knapping stone is not all that common, wars were fought over quarries, and it would not be unusual for bifaces and preforms (tools worked down enough to reduce weight and prove the absence of flaws, but not in finished form) to be transported or traded. Finished tools would be at a premium, if well made.

Obsidian is some of the very best material, and the sharpest when flaked right.