M. Járó - L. Költő szerk.: Archaeometrical research in Hungary (Budapest, 1988)
Analysis - BIRÓ Katalin, POZSGAI Imre, VLADÁR András: Central European obsidian studies. State of affain in 1987
Recent investigations by KAMINSKA and DUDA in Slovakia enabled two independent primary source regions at Szöllöske (Viniîky) and Mala Bara to be spotted. The sites Cejkov and Kasov, known in technical literature as primary sources for Slovakian obsidian, are only extensive workshop sites located on what are probably secondary sources [21]. Central European obsidian cannot be compared to the fantastic "glass mountains" of Armenia and Anatolia, either in dimensions or in quantity. Our obsidian is not known from lava flows; the sizes of the lumps that can be found today seldom surpass a diameter of 10 cms. Obviously, we must count on continuous selective collection since the Palaeolithic possibly contributing to the rarity of major pieces. Archaeological evidence, however, also proves the use of smaller pieces in the vast majority of cases, typically around and below 5 cms. Large cores like the famous Nyirlugos depot find or more recent finds from the Szécsény — Ültetés Middle Neolithic site must have been extremely rare and valuable [22—23]. Another important fact about our obsidian sources is that the Central European obsidian sources were available since the earliest inhabitation of the territory, that is, according to our present knowledge, at least from the Middle Palaeohthic. This is in contrast with most of the obsidian sources of the Mediterranean region, which are situated on an island and were not used, as far as we know, before the Mesohthic [13,24]. As is apparent from the above considerations as well as the geographical position of the sources, Central European archaeological obsidian from the Palaeolithic (and Mesolithic) period comes in all probability from the Tokaj-PreSov sources, while in the later periods, it is also very probable that Central and Northern Central European archaeological sites were supplied from these sources only. The situation is somewhat different in the region in the vinicity of the Mediterranean, especially in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. In fact, from these territories the joint presence of Central European and other Mediterranean obsidians have already been demonstrated [25]. Thus a reliable source characterization of archaeological pieces is an actual task for these regions. Further studies should be devoted to, as long as source location is concerned, the Transcarpathian region as well. Characterization of the Carpathian sources Since the begmning of characterization of obsidian sources by instrumental techniques [26], the Carpathian sources always had some role among the samples investigated from the Mediterranean region. Systematic examination and field survey specially devoted to the Central European sources, however, did not start before the middle of the seventies. The problem was raised first by John NANDRIS [20], who excluded the possibility of the existence of the Transylvanian sources, and organized the first systematic archaeometrical investigation of our obsidian, together with WARREN and WILLIAMS. Their first results were published in 1977 [17]. Table 1 Results ofneutron activation analysis on Carpathian obsidians (after WARREN et al.) Source group Elements defined (all in >pm, except Fe) Source group La Sc Ee% Co Pa Ta Cs Carpathian 1 Carpathian 2 27.4 40.4 3.5 4.7 0.81 130 0.3 0.8 173 24.6 1.4 1.1 12.7 10.7
