Ellery Frahm

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Verified

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• Ph.D. in Anthropology
• Research Scientist & Director at Yale University

The Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition (~400,000 to 200,000 years ago) is marked by technical, behavioral, and anatomical changes among hominin populations throughout Africa and Eurasia. The replacement of bifacial stone tools, such as handaxes, by tools made on flakes detached from Levallois cores documents the most important conceptual shift...

Exchange networks created by Neolithic pastoral transhumance have been central to explaining the distant transport of obsidian since chemical analysis was first used to attribute Near Eastern artifacts to their volcanic origins in the 1960s. Since then, critical reassessments of floral, faunal, and chronological data have upended long-held interpre...

Given the importance of the Levant in understanding the origins and dispersals of modern humans, there has been great interest in archaeological evidence to support population movements between the Levant and ad- jacent regions. The link, if any, between the Aurignacian tradition across Europe and the “Levantine Aurignacian” is a particular focus....

Excavations at Aghitu-3 Cave in Armenia revealed stratified Upper Palaeolithic archaeological horizons (AHs), spanning from 39 to 36,000 cal BP (AH VII) to 29–24,000 cal BP (AH III) and from which we identified the sources of 1120 obsidian artifacts. Not only does AH III—deposited at the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum—have the most artifacts fro...

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, ranging from around 57,000 to 29,000 years ago, is a period of significant archaeological interest due to notable transitions in lithic technology and hominin populations. In Europe, this time saw the replacement of Middle Palaeolithic (MP) technologies associated with Neanderthals by Upper Palaeolithic (UP) technologi...

Obsidian sourcing (or provenancing) is the process by which obsidian artifacts are matched to the geological sources from which the raw material originated. Given that obsidian is a substance that has been used from the emergence of our genus to the 21st century, reconstructing the movement of obsidian artifacts has great relevance to a wide variet...

Traditionally, reliable obsidian sourcing requires expensive calibration standards and extensive geological reference collections as well as experience with statistical processing. In the South Caucasus — one of the most obsidian-rich regions on the planet — this combination of requirements has often restricted sourcing studies because few projects...

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) exists in a somewhat liminal state as a technique in the archaeological sciences. On one hand, pXRF is essentially energy-dispersive XRF (EDXRF) condensed to fit into a handheld instrument. On the other hand, it is still often defined by a few strident critiques more than a decade ago, the focus of which were pXRF...

This article is freely available until October 13, 2024 via the link below. You will be taken directly to the final version of this article on ScienceDirect, which you are welcome to read or download. No sign up, registration or fees are required: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jexT,rVDBjZqC

In this manuscript, we briefly discuss those obsidian sources most frequently utilized during the Palaeolithic in the Armenian Highlands and some of the surrounding issues (Section 2), we summarize some of the most important Palaeolithic surveys and excavations conducted during the Soviet era (Section 3), we consider the issue of lithic transport d...

Manilla money bracelets emerged during the early modern period (ca. fifteenth century AD) as a form of currency between western Europe and West Africa, and continued to circulate until the early twentieth century. While there has been little formal scholarship on manillas, narratives abound: some histories cast the bracelets as the blood money of t...

The newly excavated rockshelter of Yeghegis-1 in Armenia reflects an occupation of five centuries, as attested by radiocarbon dates from ∼ 4100 to 4000 cal BCE in the lowest layer to ∼ 3600–3500 cal BCE at the top. It is a partially collapsed cave in which pastoralists, we hypothesize, wintered with their herds. The stone tool assemblage is predomi...

Excavations at Yeghegis-1, a rockshelter in southern Armenia, reveal long-term human habitation from the late fifth to mid-fourth millennia BC. Here, the authors present a preliminary overview of the materials recovered from the site and highlight the potential of ongoing research to shed light on Chalcolithic human lifeways in the region.

The monograph L'obsidienne au Proche et Moyen Orient: Du volcan à l'outil (Cauvin et al., 1998) was first published 25 years ago, and between its covers, Poidevn’s (1998) chapter summarized the geochemical and geochronological data for obsidian sources that lie within what is now western, central, and eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. That chapter w...

Obsidian sourcing studies have a long history in the Near East, but relatively few have focused on obsidian exchange after the Early Bronze Age. Here, we present a multi-technique analysis of an assemblage of 111 obsidian artifacts from excavated Late Bronze and Early Iron Age (LBA-EIA; c. 15th-6th c BCE) contexts at Mtsvane Gora, southern Georgia....

It has been 25 years since the publication of the monograph L’obsidienne au Proche et Moyen Orient: Du volcan a` l’outil (Cauvin et al., 1998) and, within it, Poidevin’s (1998) chapter that summarized all available geochemical and geochronological data for obsidian sources in Turkey and the Caucasus. It was a highly valuable resource to those of us...

Sourcing archaeological amber has hitherto been limited by a reliance on chemical techniques that require some degree of destructive sampling. The majority of amber artifacts are friable, weakened after millennia spent unprotected from environmental stressors, and as such are especially vulnerable during analysis or even sampling. Here, we assess t...

Abstract: Stratified Lower Paleolithic sites are very rare in the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus, and their fragmentary record limits our knowledge of the initial hominin occupation phases and lifeways in the area during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. The recently discovered Dalarik-1 Cave in Eastern Armenia will add some knowledge to the L...

Archaeologists' access to analytical infrastructure has grown exponentially over the last two decades. This is especially the case for benchtop X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and portable XRF (pXRF) instruments, which are now practically commonplace in archaeological laboratories and provide users with a non-destructive and rapid means to analyze the ele...

Here we introduce a set of well-characterized historical brick and geological specimens intended to aid the calibration of portable XRF (pXRF) instruments for archaeological ceramics. Known as the BRICC (Bricks and Rocks for Instruments’ Ceramic Calibration) sets, each of the ten matched sets consists of 20 specimens mounted in epoxy discs: 12 bric...

Investigations of organic lithic micro-residues have, over the last decade, shifted from entirely morphological observations using visible-light microscopy to compositional ones using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy, providing a seemingly objective chemical basis for residue identifications. Contaminati...

Hatis-1 is a Lower Paleolithic open-air site on the Hrazdan-Kotayk Plateau of central Armenia. Although the site was tested in the 1980s, little has been published regarding the material. Consequently, we reinvestigated the site by expanding the original test pit to better understand the stratigraphy and recover a new sample of artifacts. As a resu...

Obsidian sourcing in the Near East was principally developed to investigate the Neolithic Revolution, but limitations of these early studies were soon recognized. Critics noted that sites included in the models span millennia and vary in size and function. Greater insight is offered by a more contextualized examination of the nature and timing of s...

Most descriptions of obsidian-bearing rhyolitic lava flows and domes are largely based on relatively simple cases of tectonic plate subduction in North America, but Armenian geologists proposed since the 1960s that these models are less suitable for describing rhyolitic volcanism in their research area. Obsidian-producing volcanoes that lie in the...

In Armenia, the increasing number of excavated and chronometrically dated Middle Paleolithic (MP) localities is broadening our view of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer settlement dynamics (Marine Isotope Stage [MIS] 3; ~ 60 – 30 ka). This poster summarizes results of ongoing research at several MP sites in a range of contexts to assess variability...

The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies....

Barozh 12 is a late Middle Paleolithic open-air locality in western Armenia dating from 60,000 to 31,000 years ago. Stratified deposits with high densities of obsidian artifacts permit the analysis of diachronic trends in manufacture, reduction, discard, and toolstone provisioning as related to technological organization in the context of hunter-ga...

Here we report the findings from excavations at the open-air Middle Palaeolithic site of Alapars-1 in central Armenia. Three stratified Palaeolithic artefact assemblages were found within a 6-m-thick alluvial-aeolian sequence, located on the flanks of an obsidian-bearing lava dome. Combined sedimentological and chronological analyses reveal three p...

Nemrut Dağ volcano was a highly important obsidian source in the ancient Near East for millennia, and its circular caldera is a conspicuous landmark on the landscape. In contrast to its archaeological relevance as an obsidian source, Nemrut Dağ was poorly understood for decades, starting with the work of Renfrew and col- leagues. Fortunately, in th...

The Hrazdan River valley in Armenia contains Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic archaeological sites and offers access to the Gutansar Volcanic Complex, a large and important source of obsidian. The sites' occupants primarily acquired lithic material from this obsidian source, which is manifested throughout the local landscape, but its obsidian e...

The area encompassing the modern Republic of Armenia lies within the Armenian highlands and is situated at the very core of a dynamic corridor between Africa and Eurasia. As such, Armenia proves critical for understanding the initial stages of human settlement and the formation of ancient civilisations in the Near East and beyond. Stone Age artefac...

It has long been debated whether the Hurrians, who inhabited the zone between the Anatolian highlands and Mesopotamian lowlands, were immigrants from the northeast or indigenous to the region. I consider the implications of new obsidian studies on the issue of social networks that linked Mesopotamian settlements to the Caucasus.

A series of well-characterized specimens, known as the Peabody-Yale Reference Obsidians (PYRO) sets, has been designed to aid with calibrating and assessing X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) data, including portable XRF (pXRF) measurements, for obsidian sourcing. Each of these ten matched sets consists of 35 specimens: 20 specimens for calibration...

Along with a few more Levantine sites having long Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) sequences, Yabrud II rock-shelter in Syria received many controversial industrial-chronological interpretations. Matching together our new site’s archaeological interpretations and data on the site’s single obsidian artifact found at layer 4, the following observations...

Along with a few more Levantine sites having long Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) sequences, Yabrud II rock-shelter in Syria received many controversial industrial-chronological interpretations. Matching together our new site’s archaeological interpretations and data on the site’s single obsidian artifact found at layer 4, the following observations...

The corpus of sourced obsidian glyptic objects, like inscribed amulets and cylinder seals, is virtually nonexistent across the Near East. Here we report our findings for two obsidian amulets and two cylinder seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection and Metropolitan Museum of Art. We analyzed the artifacts using portable X-ray fluorescence, which is...

The Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman site of Dura–Europos (or simply “Dura”), dubbed the “Pompeii of the Syrian Desert” by Yale historian and archaeologist Michael Rostovtzeff, was jointly excavated by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters from 1928 to 1937. Given the outstanding preservation of art and architecture at...

Ninety years ago in the Zagros foothills of Iraq, Dorothy Garrod and her team excavated Zarzi cave, the type site of the Epipalaeolithic “Zarzian” lithic industry. Garrod reported the existence of “two small fragments of obsidian” in the principally chert-based microlithic assemblage. One of the two artifacts from Zarzi was analyzed by Renfrew and...

The complexities of Later Stone Age environmental and behavioral variability in East Africa remain poorly defined, and toolstone sourcing is essential to understand the scale of the social and natural landscapes encountered by earlier human populations. The Naivasha-Nakuru Basin in Kenya's Rift Valley is a region that is not only highly sensitive t...

The analysis of microscopic residues on stone tools provides one of the most direct ways to reconstruct the functions of such artifacts. However, new methods are needed to strengthen residue identifications based upon visible-light microscopy. In this work, we establish that reflectance Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIRM) can be us...

Studies of Northern Mesopotamian complex societies have long been predicated on ceramic wares, whereby ceramic variation is thought to reflect cultural variation. There is, however, an increasing appreciation for the role of imitation, itinerancy, and other phenomena in the distribution of ceramic styles. Much of this newfound nuance is due to chem...

A few of the major portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) manufacturers have released new models in the past year or two. The technologies in these latest instruments have advanced so much that any performance appraisals more than a few years old are essentially obsolete. The X-ray detectors and associated electronics inside a new pXRF analyzer are mor...

With its well-preserved archaeological and environmental records, Aghitu-3 Cave permits us to examine the settlement patterns of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) people who inhabited the Armenian Highlands. We also test whether settlement of the region between ∼39–24,000 cal BP relates to environmental variability. The earliest evidence occurs in archaeo...

Identifying the movement of lithic materials to reconstruct social networks has been a mainstay of research into Palaeolithic cognition and behavior, but such datasets are often predicated on studies of cherts and similar siliceous rocks, the origins of which can be difficult to establish conclusively. Yabroud Rockshelter II (YR2) in southern Syria...

Here we report our recent discovery of a new obsidian source in central Armenia. Using portable XRF, we were able to chemically identify “Ptghni” obsidian as a previously unrecognized source on the same day that we first encountered it during our field surveys. Obsidian was found in alluvial-lacustrine sediments exposed within the Hrazdan Gorge, wh...

The analysis of residues on stone tools can yield important insights into the tool-using behaviors of Paleolithic hominins. The ambiguity of residue identifications using visible-light microscopy (VLM) has led to the development of additional techniques for their characterization. Reflectance-based Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIR...

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instruments can source obsidian artifacts once beyond analytical reach, expanding the range of artifact classes included in sourcing research. It is now more straightforward to analyze a “museum quality” tool on display in a gallery than the flaking chips and resharpening debitage recovered with it. That is becaus...

Contact across long distances is evident in the Neolithic of the Near East, whether driven by social networks, exchange links, or movement of individuals or populations. Movement of material, such as obsidian, can elucidate these processes but is often studied within a bounded world that places Mesopotamia at the center. This paper focuses on links...

During the Late Pleistocene, modern humans expanded out of Africa and inhabited Eurasia for the first time. To better understand the context of this process in the Armenian Highlands and determine how climate affected the behavior of these early modern humans, we collected sediments from the Upper Paleolithic archaeological cave site Aghitu-3. This...

In obsidian-rich Armenia, one of the most archaeologically significant obsidian resources is the Gutansar volcanic complex (GVC). Numerous Palaeolithic sites across Armenia consist of little more than deposits of obsidian tools and debris, and within the Hrazdan Gorge, the vast majority of artifacts is crafted from GVC obsidian. For example, about...

Armenia has one of the most obsidian-rich natural and cultural landscapes in the world, and the lithic assemblages of numerous Palaeolithic sites are predominantly, if not entirely, composed of obsidian. Recent excavations at the Middle Palaeolithic cave of Lusakert 1 recovered, on average, 470 obsidian artifacts daily. After sourcing more than 170...

The Early to Middle Bronze Age transition in Northern Mesopotamia has received great attention for the apparent concurrence of aridification, deurbanisation, and the end of the Akkadian empire around 2200 BCE. Our understanding of the “crisis” has been almost exclusively shaped by ceramics, demography, and subsistence. Exchange and the associated s...

The response from Speakman and Shackley to my paper highlights a number of important issues currently facing archaeological sourcing research. Many of these issues, however, have little to do with HHpXRF itself and more to do with an artificial crisis triggered by specialists' concerns about a hitherto restricted technique becoming available to a w...

Handheld portable XRF (HHpXRF) has received considerable recent attention in archaeology, especially for obsidian sourcing. Published studies largely suggest a high potential for success. HHpXRF, though, has been met with debate and scepticism. Concerns fall into three categories: (1) low accuracy and precision, (2) data correction schemes and cali...

We tested two portable XRF instruments (with different technologies) using two correction schemes (‘soils’ and ‘mining’) with both factory-set calibrations and linear regression calibrations derived from published data. All four Aegean obsidian sources, including Sta Nychia and Dhemenegaki on Melos, were distinguished in each case. The newer instru...

Site Setting Results and Conclusion References Acknowledgements

Despite predictions in the 1980s that electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) would become a popular technique for obsidian sourcing, few studies have used it with this goal, and most of them are now outdated and unrepresentative of modern EMPA. For example, Merrick and Brown (1984) recorded their data on punch cards. Furthermore, these studies destruc...

As new analytical techniques are brought to sourcing studies and researchers compile data into multi-laboratory databases, systematic evaluation is essential. The importance of precision and accuracy is clear, but Shackley (2005) also calls for “archaeological accuracy.” Hughes (1998) offered a framework to consider precision and accuracy alongside...

https://ojcs.siue.edu/ojs/index.php/ssa/article/view/2269/571

Ideally chemical analyses used for sourcing studies could be conducted in the field, quickly, and nondestructively. Unfortunately, most techniques require immobile instruments. One technique with great potential for on-site analysis is portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF). Thermo Fisher Scientific's NITON analyzer is a handheld ED...