MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

MCI 6220 Archaeological Obsidian from the Kuril Islands, Russian Far East
MCI Staff: S. Colby Phillips, R. Jeff Speakman, Nicole C. Little
The directions and distances associated with the exchange of lithic raw materials can
provide insight into the social organization of widely dispersed hunter-gatherer groups. In order
to infer network patterns of transport and trade from the archaeological distribution of obsidian
across a region, it is necessary to determine the geographic and geologic source of the obsidian
material. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) are two chemistry-based analytical approaches for matching
obsidian artifacts to their geologic sources that are available at the Smithsonian Institution's
Museum Conservation Institute.
New data from the Kuril Biocomplexity Project (KBP), specifically the recovery of
nonlocal obsidian, can be used to test these conclusions as well as develop new hypotheses about
the procurement, consumption, and roles of non-local raw material in the Kuril Islands. During
the 2006 and 2007 KBP field season, more than 950 obsidian artifacts were recovered from 16
sites on 8 islands across the Kuril archipelago from contexts spanning at least 2,500 years,
suggesting a wide-ranging distribution of obsidian throughout the island chain. While the
Kurillithic assemblage includes a number of different raw materials, the presence of obsidian is
important in regards to research on Kurillithic technology. Obsidian can be flaked predictably
and to create extremely sharp edges, though the edges dull quickly with use and need frequent
re-sharpening or replacement. Currently no sources of obsidian native to the Kuril Islands are
known to have been used prehistorically.
Because obsidian can be matched to its geologic source with a high degree of reliability
based on elemental analysis, chemistry-based approaches can be utilized to address issues such
as raw material procurement, transport and exchange, networking, and social identity.
These analyses are crucial for understanding the geographic and geologic sources of
obsidian that were utilized in the Kuril Islands, and provide a foundation for inferring social
affiliation networks based on the transport and/or trade of obsidian throughout the island chain
over a period of several thousand years.
Additionally, compared with Hokkaido to the south and Kamchatka to the north,
relatively little archaeological research has been conducted in the Kuril Islands. Recent
archaeological work in the Kuril Islands as part of the Kuril Biocomplexity Project (KBP) in
2006 and 2007 provides the means to synthesize the archaeology of the entire island chain into a
coherent regional framework for the first time. Obsidian exchange networks have been identified
in Japan, Sakhalin Island, Kamchatka, and mainland areas of the Russian Far East, and while
non-local obsidian has been recovered from the Kuril Islands, there is currently an overall lack of
obsidian source reference data for this region. The research proposed will create a significant
database of source characterizations for the Kurils, and would complement the ongoing research
that the Smithsonian Institution is conducting in this region of the world.
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