GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL PROVENANCE STUDIES: PAST AND FUTURE

There has always been a close relationship between the geological discipline’s interest in obsidian and archaeology’s need to understand both the geological origin of the glass and it’s use in prehistory. Today this relationship has blossomed, not only because many geoarchaeologists are trained geologists as well, but because geology has recently gained a realization that rhyolite glass is an important window into magma chemistry. In some ways, geoarchaeological studies of obsidian have led the way in the understanding of source heterogeneity, statistical analyses of elemental composition, the technology of the analytical tools, and post emplacement diagenesis. I have been fortunate enough to be a participant in obsidian provenance studies for over 30 years and for the last 20 years seen this relationship blossom at Berkeley. Through this lens I will examine the evolution of geoarchaeological obsidian provenance studies and offer a few suggestions as to how the future might look.