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| Obsidians of Lipari | |
|---|---|
| Name | Obsidians of Lipari |
| Caption | Obsidian fragments from Lipari |
| Type | Volcanic glass |
| Location | Lipari (island), Aeolian Islands |
| Composition | Silica-rich volcanic glass |
| Age | Holocene–Pleistocene |
Obsidians of Lipari are the silica-rich volcanic glasses produced by the volcanic centers of Lipari (island), part of the Aeolian Islands, and represent a key raw material in Mediterranean prehistory and modern petrology. These obsidians have been the subject of geological mapping, archaeological sourcing, and geochemical fingerprinting by institutions such as the British Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Scholars from universities including University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Sapienza University of Rome, and University of Bologna have integrated fieldwork on Lipari with comparative studies at sites like Knossos, Akrotiri (Santorini), and Palaikastro.
The volcanic glasses from Lipari form within the Tyrrhenian Sea tectonic domain associated with the subduction-related arc represented by the Aeolian arc and are compositionally distinct from obsidians of Santorini, Melos, and Vulcano (island). Petrographic descriptions by researchers affiliated with the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology show high silica content, phenocryst-poor textures, and micron-scale microlite assemblages comparable to those reported for obsidians at Mount Etna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli. Major- and trace-element geochemistry measured at laboratories such as the Geological Survey of Italy and the University of Arizona demonstrate characteristic enrichments and depletions useful for sourcing studies employed by curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.
Lipari’s obsidian formed during explosive and effusive phases of volcanic activity connected to caldera formation, dome extrusion, and pyroclastic eruptions documented in stratigraphic work by teams from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Radiometric dating carried out with facilities at ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris places major obsidian-producing eruptions within the late Pleistocene to Holocene, contemporaneous in part with eruptive sequences on Salina (island) and Panarea. Volcanological syntheses published in journals associated with the European Geosciences Union link Lipari glass formation to magma differentiation processes observed at Campi Flegrei and documented in the archives of the Royal Society.
Archaeological surveys of extraction sites on Lipari and neighboring Vulcano (island) have been reported by teams from the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Sicily, the Italian Heritage Ministry, and the German Archaeological Institute. Fieldwork has identified surface outcrops, primary flows, and paleosurfaces exploited for knappable nodules near localities recorded by the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione and mapped using remote sensing methods developed at the European Space Agency. Excavations involving the British School at Rome, the École française de Rome, and the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) have documented mining pits, trial trenches, and workshop loci comparable to extraction features at Khirokitia and Çatalhöyük.
Lipari obsidian features prominently in lithic assemblages recovered from Neolithic settlements across the Central Mediterranean, including finds at Favignana, Sicily, Sardinia, and the Italian Peninsula. Typological and technological analyses by scholars at the British Museum, the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas", and the Museo Archeologico Eoliano show blade, point, and core reduction sequences analogous to industries described from Pilo, Rifugio Zanardini, and sites excavated by the University of Florence. Obsidian artifacts from Lipari have been unearthed in contexts tied to cultural horizons such as the Aegean Bronze Age, the Mycenaean civilization, and the Nuragic civilization, with curated collections in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Control of Lipari obsidian sources influenced maritime exchange networks linking port sites such as Naples, Catania, Taranto, Rhodes, and Pisa. Ethnohistoric comparisons drawn by researchers at the University of Barcelona and the University of Malta place obsidian procurement within broader trade systems involving commodities traded through hubs like Gela, Monemvasia, and Byzantium. Economic modelling used by scholars at the London School of Economics and the European University Institute examines resource access and distribution patterns similar to those described for metals in archives at the Vatican Library and commercial records in the Archivio di Stato di Napoli. Iconographic and ritual uses of obsidian are discussed in monographs from the British Academy and exhibited in thematic displays at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.
Provenance and sourcing of Lipari obsidian have been advanced through techniques applied at facilities such as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory, including electron microprobe analysis, neutron activation analysis, and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry undertaken in collaborations with the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Cross-disciplinary projects involving the European Research Council and the Council for British Research in the Levant integrate geochemical datasets with archaeological databases curated by the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) and the Archaeology Data Service. Ongoing studies leverage machine learning methods developed at Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne to refine classification and to distinguish Lipari glass from Melos and Antiparos sources.
Category:Obsidian Category:Aeolian Islands Category:Volcanology Category:Archaeological materials