Provenance analysis of obsidian artifacts from the Indigirka River basin (Northeast Siberia) and the long-distance exchange of raw material in prehistoric Siberian Arctic

For the first time, an obsidian provenance study is performed for artifacts from the Indigirka River basin (Northeast Siberia). The non-destructive ED–XRF analysis of seven obsidian items from the Buolumuna-Taasa site, dated to the Neolithic (ca. 5000–1000 cal BC), shows that all of them originated from the Lake Krasnoe source, situated ca. 1300 km away. This is a remarkable example of super-long-distance transport / exchange of obsidian in...