Kyle Freund

Idaho National Laboratory | INL

This paper examines the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in central Mediterranean prehistory and explores the reasons behind the collapse of a roughly 2500-year tradition of long-distance obsidian exchange. More specifically , this research studies the effects of early metalworking practices on pre-existing traditions of consumption and the connec...

This research concerns the Tule Springs Archaeological Site (79001461/26CK4) in Clark County, Nevada and new analyses of the obsidian flake discovered there in 1933. The importance of the flake rests in its then-postulated association with the fossil remains of extinct Pleistocene megafauna and the long-term research endeavors that have happened si...

In 2022, human footprints were discovered on the Old River Bed delta, a large terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene distributary wetland in western Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. The site also sits within the boundaries of the U.S. Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range. The prints’ preservation and context showed the unshod feet of adults and c...

This presentation contextualizes archaeological sites with fluted points and crescents on the distal Old River Bed (ORB) delta in western Utah. A key attribute of this component is that it has a radiocarbon-established early limiting date of ca. ~12,700 cal BP, providing the first clear post-Clovis case in the Great Basin. The region is better know...

In 2022, ancient human footprints were discovered on the Old River Bed delta. Their preservation and context showed the unshod feet of adults and children infilled with stream sand from wading in waters that disappeared with the delta almost 10,000 years ago. The prints’ stratigraphic position suggested they could date as early as the terminal Plei...

One of the best ways to research lithic procurement and hunter-gatherer mobility is through obsidian sourcing. In the U.S. Great Basin, the reconstruction of obsidian conveyance zones that connect local material records to large-scale patterns of land use has proven immensely informative, and straight-line distances between artifacts and their geol...

This poster contextualizes archaeological sites with fluted point components and related finds on the Old River Bed (ORB) delta in western Utah. Between ~13,000 and 9500 cal BP the ORB delta endured as a large distributary-fed wetland in what is now the dry and forbidding Great Salt Lake Desert. This vast wetland is widely recognized for its Wester...

This paper characterizes the geology and geochemistry of the Ferguson Wash obsidian source in the eastern Great Basin and contextualizes the prehistoric exploitation of its raw materials. Procurement of Ferguson Wash obsidian begins in the Early Holocene and continues into the Late Holocene, but it is distributed over a relatively small area when c...

The answer to the question of, “What is an obsidian source?” may seem straightforward, but for archaeologists it is often difficult to define concisely. A review of the literature reveals that sources can variably be defined by their geology, geochemistry, and/or geography. For example, a source can represent an eruptive event or a series of erupti...

This presentation details the results of a roughly 20,000-acre archaeological surface survey conducted on the Barry M. Goldwater Range West, located to the southeast of Yuma and west of the Gila Mountains. Ancient meanders of the Colorado and Gila Rivers flowed across this region, forming lag deposits of rounded chert and quartzite cobbles that wer...

Available calibrations for obsidian transform X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectral data into analytical units such as parts per million or weight percent through complex algorithms built around known geologic rock references (USGS and NIST) or independent matrix matched sets (Bruker from MURR and PYRO from Yale) characterized by other analytical metho...

New investigations on Ustica (Palermo, Sicily) originated from the need to improve our knowledge of the island’s archaeological and environmental heritage. Through field surveys, particular attention was paid to human occupation in the Neolithic phases and focused on the less investigated southern side of the island. The systematic survey of the ar...

This research characterizes the geology of the Ferguson Wash obsidian source and contextualizes the prehistoric exploitation of its raw materials. The source is located on the Nevada-Utah border in Elko County, roughly 40 kilometers south of the town of Wendover. Prehistoric use of Ferguson Wash obsidian largely begins in the Early Archaic, being d...

The Sexton Site (8IR01822) is situated on a slightly elevated limestone hammock in Indian River County, Florida. Extensive geophysical prospection, shovel probing, and subsequent block excavations in 2019 revealed the presence of a midden with a possibly contiguous seasonal village or hamlet of probable Woodland age. Nine hundred ninety-two ceramic...

Using data collected through the systematic recording of historic grave markers at Pine Grove Cemetery (n=329) and White City Cemetery (n=355) in Saint Lucie County, this paper contextualizes mortuary traditions from the late 19th to early 21st centuries in east-central Florida. The results of this study highlight how decisions about burial are roo...

This paper presents the results of field walking, magnetometer survey and UAV-based near infrared (NIR) photogrammetry at the Tavoliere Neolithic site designated J155/FG003663/ Posta Barone Grella I southwest of Cerignola (FG) in Puglia. These techniques were utilised as a means of locating areas for future excavation: the methodology presented her...

The island of Tavolara off the coast of northeastern Sardinia (Italy) was intermittently occupied from Neolithic to modern times, and recent excavations at the site of Spalmatore di Terra have revealed the presence of Villanovan ceramics on the island dating to the 9th century BCE (according to the traditional chronology). Contacts between Etruria...

This paper contextualizes analyses of a collection of metal artifacts and ostensible metallurgical slag from the prehistoric settlement of Su Coddu in south-central Sardinia (ca. 3400–2850 BCE). To characterize the types of metals and associated alloys utilized by the earliest residents of Su Coddu, two pins and an unshaped lump of unknown composit...

The Sexton Site (8IR01822) is situated on a slightly elevated limestone hammock in Indian River County, Florida. Extensive geophysical prospection, shovel probing, and subsequent block excavations revealed the presence of a midden with a possibly contiguous seasonal village or hamlet of probable Woodland age. The site was episodically visited/occup...

This article focuses on a for-credit cemetery recording class taught at Indian River State College (IRSC) and on the impact of the project on student perceptions of cultural heritage and historic preservation. One of the goals in creating this service learning course was to promote student awareness of the destructive risks that many historic cemet...

Exchange is a central focus of a large portion of modern obsidian studies, and the reconstruction of various exchange mechanisms using provenance data has a long history in the discipline. While modeling the movement of objects across space is revealing, it is also critical to flesh out the implications of exchange relationships and their capacity...

Obsidian sourcing is a well-established facet of archaeological practice and has the capacity to address a wide range of relevant archaeological questions. For decades, Professor Steven Shackley has been on the forefront of methodological and theoretical developments in obsidian characterization studies, and his contribution to our understanding of...

This paper discusses Bronze Age Nuragic obsidian exploitation by combining raw material sourcing with techno-typological analysis of a total of 363 obsidian artifacts from two sites in west-central Sardinia. The results are then combined with previously published data to make broader interpretations about obsidian reduction strategies and island-wi...

This paper interrogates the concept of “exotica” and its value in studying social interactions amongst agro-pastoral societies of the Neolithic. This issue is addressed by contextualizing data obtained through obsidian provenance studies in central Mediterranean prehistory, in turn allowing for the reconstruction of the movement of obsidian across...

This paper focuses on the myriad roles of obsidian within prehistoric farming communities of the central Mediterranean, ranging from a raw material for tool production to a medium regulating social relations and complex power dynamics across space. To date, obsidian has been reported at over 1200 archaeological sites throughout the central Mediterr...

This poster presents data on analyses of a collection of fired materials and metallurgical slag from the site of Su Coddu in south-central Italy. Su Coddu is a residential settlement that was initially occupied during Late Neolithic of the fourth millennium B.C., before gradually expanding in size over the course of the Early Copper Age. Later phas...

Of the four major island sources of obsidian in the central Mediterranean, Lipari raw materials have the widest distribution, being found at over 200 archaeological sites throughout mainland Italy, southern France, northern Africa, and Sicily. As a means of contextualizing the importance of Lipari obsidian within broader cultural processes, this pa...

This presentation explores the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in Sicilian prehistory and contextualizes the interplay between the procurement of obsidian raw materials and their consequent reduction and use, in turn highlighting long-term trends in lithic exploitation from the Neolithic through Chalcolithic eras. By combining obsidian sourcing b...

Through the analysis of 106 obsidian artifacts from eight Chalcolithic sites throughout the island of Sicily (c. 3500–2500 BC) this paper discusses the interplay between the procurement of obsidian raw materials and their consequent reduction, in turn highlighting long-term trends in lithic exploitation from the Neolithic through Chalcolithic eras....

Published online at www.ajaonline.org/book-review/3439

The McMaster Archaeological X-ray Fluorescence Laboratory (MAX Lab) was established in 2010 with the goal of using compositional analyses of archaeological objects to engage with broad-level questions about past human behavior. In this context, obsidian has been the primary artifact type analyzed, taking form through the sourcing of artifacts to th...

This paper presents data on early copper-based metallurgy from 16 Copper Age sites in northern and north-central Italy (ca. 4th – 3rd millennia B.C.). As early as the mid-fifth millennium B.C. Neolithic communities of the region began to experiment with metal technology. In these early phases, metal use appears to have been highly restricted and is...

This paper explores burial traditions in the Ft. Pierce area of east-central Florida through the systematic recording of 307 gravemarkers at two historic cemeteries, in turn contextualizing burial practices through time and space and the diverse ways in which various cultural groups have commemorated those who have passed. Issues related to race, g...

This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existe...

Of the four major island sources of obsidian in the Central Mediterranean, Lipari raw materials have the widest distribution, being found at over 200 archaeological sites throughout mainland Italy, southern France, northern Africa, and Sicily. As a means contextualizing the importance of Lipari obsidian within broader cultural processes, this prese...

This poster presents data on early copper-based metallurgy at the prehistoric site of Monte d’Accoddi on the Italian island of Sardinia. Monte d’Accoddi has variously been described as an altar, a temple, and/or a step pyramid and provides evidence of copper-based metalworking as early as the late fourth millennium B.C. During the summer of 2015, 1...

Principal Components Analysis is widely used to visualise and analyse archaeometric data. Indeed, visual inspection of the 2- (and rarely 3-) dimensional plots of the coordinates of the samples often constitutes the analysis. However, all scientific instruments measure with error, and such experimental error has the potential to make the interpreta...

The Tavoliere has one of the densest concentrations of Neolithic settlement in Europe and is known for its wide repertoire of pottery styles. Using network analysis techniques, this study explores Neolithic pottery production in the region by integrating typological analysis with petrography and elemental characterization using portable X-ray fluor...

Aerial photography has played an extremely important role in Tavoliere Neolithic archaeology, the earliest sites being reported by Bradford (1949) on the basis of WWII reconnaissance photography. Subsequently researchers such as Jones (1987) and, more recently, Keri Brown (2004) have also exploited aerial photographs. Analysis of aerial photography...

This study focuses on obsidian consumption at the ‘ritual spring’ of Mitza Pidighi in west-central Sardinia, Italy. The site dates to the late Nuragic I to Nuragic III phases of the Bronze Age (ca. 1350–850 B.C.) and is found just east of a contemporaneous residential village, Nuraghe Pidighi. While recent years have seen a surge of archaeological...

Over the past three years our team has surveyed 35 sites in the Tavoliere (northern Puglia) to investigate perhaps the earliest agriculturalists in Italy. The Tavoliere was an area of dense settlement in the early Italian Neolithic (ca. 6200-5000 BC). A sample of sites was selected from the more than 700 ditched enclosures identified from WWII (and...

This paper presents an update on the progress of the project “Pots and People of the Tavoliere Neolithic”. We describe our ceramic study methodology and the current status of our database. We also present a brief case study involving clays and ceramics from the site of Serra di Cristo. Finally, we present results of geophysical and near infrared (N...

Early metallurgy in the Central Mediterranean (ca. 4th millennium B.C.) represents an important technological, socio-economic, and symbolic innovation that sees the first appearance of increasingly long-distance exchange networks, emerging gender roles tied to material biographies, and developing ideas of personhood as inferred through changing bur...

The Tavoliere delle Puglie saw agricultural settlement a little more than 8,000 years ago: almost certainly the earliest Neolithic in Italy. Trace element analysis of ceramics and clay sources offers the opportunity to reconstruct prehistoric clay sourcing and ceramic production and exchange strategies. Since our last presentation at the Convegno...

Studies of the direction of lithic movement may contribute significantly to our understanding of the spread of the Neolithic package (domesticated plants and animals, ceramics, year-round settlements) from the eastern Mediterranean westward. In the central and western Mediterranean, the first movement and exchange of obsidian begins at the onset of...

This study explores obsidian consumption during the Early/Middle Neolithic Stentinello period (ca. 5600–4000 cal B.C.) on the Italian island of Sicily through the analysis of 622 obsidian artifacts from eight sites in eastern Sicily and the Aeolian Islands. By combining obsidian sourcing by means of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry w...

This study focuses on the long-term exploitation of obsidian in prehistoric Sicily and the factors that influenced the procurement and consumption of these raw materials from the sixth to second millennia B.C. A detailed study of 6,287 prehistoric artifacts from 43 sites shows that the vast majority of obsidian found in Sicily comes from a single L...

Presented here are results from the non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of ceramic artifacts in Italy, Malta, and Croatia, dating to the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, with a focus on the advantages and limitations of this method of analysis in identifying local vs. non-local pottery, and their “history” of...

While there is a large body of literature on prehistoric obsidian use in the West Mediterranean, little of this work is focused on post-Neolithic assemblages. This presentation aims in part to redress this research bias through a discussion of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age obsidian consumption in the region, with a focus on the role that early metall...

Scholars typically argue that cultural interaction between the West Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica and the European mainland took place through the Tuscan Archipelago, via such intermediary islands as Elba and Pianosa. This path is posited as the prime route in and out of these islands for both people and objects throughout prehistor...

By the Late Bronze Age in Sicily and the Mediterranean, long distance exchange was well established as shown by materials such as copper oxhide ingots, amber, glass, ivory, and both decorated pottery and ceramic transport vessels. At some sites in southeastern Sicily, the large quantity of Mycenaean-style ceramics suggests the existence of establis...

This study focuses on obsidian consumption at the 'ritual spring' of Mitza Pidighi in west-central Sardinia, Italy. The site dates to late Nuragic I to Nuragic III phases of the Bronze Age (ca. 1350-850 B.C.) and is found just east of a contemporaneous residential village. Mitza Pidighi consists of a natural spring surrounded by an oval-shaped cons...

A large number of copper-based and other metal artifacts in the Paolo Orsi Museum in Siracusa, southeast Sicily, were analyzed to determine their elemental composition and address issues such as the beginnings of alloy technology in Sicily. A small sample of comparative analyses has been carried out at the Luigi Bernabò Brea museum in Lipari. Non-d...

Engraved and painted animal and anthropomorphic figures were discovered in 1949 in the Grotta del Genovese on Levanzo, one of the Egadi islands west of Sicily. The engravings are thought to date to the upper Paleolithic (ca. 10,000 BC), the red painted figures to the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000 BC), and the black painted figures to the Late Neolithic...

Over 1500 obsidian artifacts from 30 sites in Sicily (Italy) dating from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age were analyzed non-destructively using a Bruker III-SD portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine their specific geological source and reconstruct transport/trade routes. This systematic, large-scale analytical program, which als...

This presentation focuses on prehistoric obsidian circulation in the West Mediterranean from the 6th to 2nd millennia BC. Since the field of study was inaugurated by Cann and Renfrew in 1964, scholars have generated a large amount of data on the character and use of the various obsidian sources. However, until now there have been few attempts to us...

A systematic, large-scale analytical program for obsidian from prehistoric archaeological sites in Sicily was conducted in 2012 and 2013. With the permission of several museums and superintendencies, over 1500 obsidian artifacts from 30 sites dating from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age were examined and characterized by their typology and tec...

Obsidian artifacts have been found at many prehistoric sites in Sicily, yet only a few studies have been done to determine the specific geological sources and subsources used. In 2012, nearly 600 artifacts from 25 archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Ages (ca. 6th-2nd millennia BC) were analyzed non-destructively using...

This paper thematically characterizes a large body of recent obsidian sourcing discourse as a means of highlighting the current place of obsidian provenance studies in larger archaeological discourse. It is shown that the field of obsidian sourcing is flourishing, with a clear upward trend in the number of published studies in the past decade. This...

Obsidian artifacts have been found at many prehistoric sites in Sicily, yet only a few studies have been done to determine the specific geological sources and subsources used. In 2012, nearly 600 artifacts from 25 archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Ages (ca. 6 th-2 nd millennia BC) were analyzed non-destructively usi...

Scholars typically argue that cultural interaction between the West Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica and the European mainland took place through the Tuscan Archipelago, via such intermediary islands as Elba and Pianosa. This path is posited as the prime route in and out of these islands for both people and objects throughout prehistor...

While there is a large body of literature on prehistoric obsidian use in Sardinia and the West Mediterranean, little of this work is focused on post-Neolithic assemblages. This presentation aims in part to redress this research bias by focusing on obsidian procurement and lithic reduction strategies in Bronze Age Nuragic Sardinia (ca. 1700-800 BC)....

This presentation provides a broad overview of the current state of play of obsidian characterization studies in the Pacific Ring of Fire. More specifically, this presentation thematically characterizes the archaeological questions that are relevant to Pacific Rim archaeologists and how obsidian sourcing data are used to address these issues. This...

This paper details the first study of the Gürgürbaba Tepe source on the north coast of Lake Van (eastern Turkey), integrating new survey data with a large scale elemental characterization of its high quality raw materials, along with a consideration of the products’ use and dissemination through time. The first major result of our work has been t...

This presentation discusses the application of two statistical analyses, k-means and kernel density estimation, in archaeological research and explains several techniques which integrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with other statistical programs. This is significant because it expands the relevance of GIS software in landscape archaeology...

The study of the Sardinian Bronze Age (Nuragic period) and the factors which created and maintained an island-wide identity as seen through the presence of its distinctive nuraghi has received considerable attention; however, the amount of research directly related to the stone tools of the era has been relatively limited despite the wealth of know...

The archaeological importance of obsidian from the Greek island of Giali during the Mesolithic through Bronze Ages is relatively minimal when compared with other eastern Mediterranean sources. Through the use of X-ray fluorescence technology (EDXRF) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this project chemically characterizes geological samples f...

The study of Sardinian Bronze Age lithic technology and the exchange networks which created and maintained an island-wide identity as seen through the presence of its distinctive nuraghi has received little attention despite the wealth of knowledge it is capable of yielding. This research provides one of the first comprehensive studies of Bronze Ag...