PROVENANCE OF OBSIDIAN ARTEFACTS FROM DIFFERENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL LAYERS OF PHAISTOS AND HAGHIA TRIADA

Abstract

Provenance study through XRF analysis of 26 samples of obsidian flints and blades from Phaistos and Haghia Triada reveals an interesting pattern: all the neolithic material has its source in the Demenegaki quarry in Melos, the majority of the EM I samples, and all the EM II ones come from the site of Sta Nykia in the same island, while MM IA-B samples originated from both quarries. This shift in time reveals not only internal dynamics in Melos, but poses also the problem of the discrepancy between the early exploitation of Melian quarry and the floruit of Melian culture in EBA II.