TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterization of obsidian from the Tibetan Plateau by XRF and NAA
AU - Perreault, Charles
AU - Boulanger, Matthew T.
AU - Hudson, Adam M.
AU - Rhode, David
AU - Madsen, David B.
AU - Olsen, John W.
AU - Steffen, Martina L.
AU - Quade, Jay
AU - Glascock, Michael D.
AU - Brantingham, P. Jeffrey
N1 - Funding Information:
CP, DR, DBM and PJB are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation ( SBE 0214870 and 0841435 ). JWO is supported by the University of Arizona Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archeology , the Henry R. Luce Foundation , and the American Council of Learned Societies . DMH and JQ thank the Comer Science and Education Foundation , as well as Tyler Huth and Lei Guoliang for help in the field. The Archeology Laboratory at MURR is supported in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation ( 1415403 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - The Tibetan Plateau is the highest contiguous terrain on the planet. It is cold, dry, poor in oxygen, and one of the last habitats to have been colonized by our species. Here we present the first quantitative chemical characterization of obsidian artifacts from the Tibetan Plateau. The artifacts in our sample come from 20 archeological sites spanning a large portion of the northeast and the southwest regions of the Plateau. We find that five varieties of obsidian were used at these sites. We also identify the geological source of one of the obsidian varieties as near Balung Tso in south-central Tibet. The five varieties of volcanic glass are distributed into two discrete zones in the northeast and the southwest of Tibet, suggesting that the two regions may have been occupied independently, and that interactions between them were limited. Finally, we also find that some of the transportation distances of obsidian are several hundred kilometers long.
AB - The Tibetan Plateau is the highest contiguous terrain on the planet. It is cold, dry, poor in oxygen, and one of the last habitats to have been colonized by our species. Here we present the first quantitative chemical characterization of obsidian artifacts from the Tibetan Plateau. The artifacts in our sample come from 20 archeological sites spanning a large portion of the northeast and the southwest regions of the Plateau. We find that five varieties of obsidian were used at these sites. We also identify the geological source of one of the obsidian varieties as near Balung Tso in south-central Tibet. The five varieties of volcanic glass are distributed into two discrete zones in the northeast and the southwest of Tibet, suggesting that the two regions may have been occupied independently, and that interactions between them were limited. Finally, we also find that some of the transportation distances of obsidian are several hundred kilometers long.
KW - Archeology
KW - High altitude adaptation
KW - Human expansion
KW - Lithic raw material transportation distances
KW - Mobility
KW - Obsidian characterization
KW - Tibet
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84951203319&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84951203319&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.12.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.12.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84951203319
SN - 2352-409X
VL - 5
SP - 392
EP - 399
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
ER -