BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Evidence for Earliest Obsidian Trade Found in Aegean

Bible and archaeology news

Researchers studying obsidian tools and weapons discovered at the site of Franchthi cave on the Greek mainland believe they have found evidence that obsidian may have been mined and traded across the Aegean Sea more than 15,000 years ago. Using advanced dating techniques, the scientists found that the obsidian was likely mined from the Aegean island of Melos several thousand years before the end of the last ice age, indicating that prehistoric mariners must have been transporting the volcanic-glass stone across the seas.

“They were sailors, certainly, especially in the Aegean region [and] they followed little islands, jumping like a frog, reaching also Asia Minor and the Greek mainland,” said Nicolaos Laskaris of the University of the Aegean in Greece and one of the project’s lead researchers. “Until now only in Franchthi cave obsidians had been found at circa 8,500 B.C. Now we prove earlier contact with coastal sites was a fact.”

Researchers studying obsidian tools and weapons discovered at the site of Franchthi cave on the Greek mainland believe they have found evidence that obsidian may have been mined and traded across the Aegean Sea more than 15,000 years ago.