APPLICATION OF FISSION-TRACK DATING TO ARCHAEOMETRY - PROVENANCE STUDIES OF PREHISTORIC OBSIDIAN ARTIFACTS

Several obsidian artifacts from Anatolian (Turkey) Neolithic sites hav e been analysed by the FT dating method and the results have been comp ared with data referring to obsidian natural sources located in the Me diterranean and adjacent regions. The conclusions can be summarized as follows: (1) some of the artifacts are very probably from Central Ana tolian sources, others from Northern Anatolian sources, (2) the remain ing artifacts are from unidentified sources, probably located or in Ea stern Anatolian or in Western Anatolia and (3) the Carpathian and Aege an sources are not represented in the studied sample set. Comparison b etween the FT dating method and the trace elements composition by Inst rumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) shows that the combination of these two approaches is a powerful tool for provenance studies of prehistoric obsidian artifacts.