The Melos Obsidian Quarries; A Case Study in Lithic Technology

In recent years considerable progress has been made in the study of prehistoric obsidian networks in many areas of the world (e.g. WRIGHT 1969; GRIFFIN et al. 1969; HALLEM et al. 1976) because the particular nature of the typically small, homogeneous and localized outcrops has meant that the individual obsidian sources used in the past can easily be discriminated. In the Aegean area, for instance, Colin Renfrew and his colleagues (e.g. RENFREW et al. 1965; ASPINALL et al. 1972) have demonstrated conclusively that virtually all the obsidian found so commonly on prehistoric sites throughout the area is derived almost soley from two outcrops on the island of Melos; furthermore, he has been able to suggest that two types of exchange may have been responsible for this distribution: direct access and down-the-line exchange (RENFREW 1975: 42). Nevertheless, even in this well documented cases the important results generated by the compositional studies cannot by themselves determine the mechanisms for the spread of obsidian on prehistoric sites. Although RENFREW (1975) has described means of testing his hypotheses about Melian obsidian trade using the shape of the curve relating quantity of obsidian to distance from the source, the requisite data for testing these patterns is not yet available for the Aegean and it is therefore necessary to invoke other classes of material.