Identifying the Ethiopian origin of the obsidian found in Upper Egypt (Naqada period) and the most likely exchange routes *

Abstract

The absence of obsidian sources in Egypt implies that obsidian excavated in fourth-millennium bc Upper Egyptian sites arrived in Egypt over long distances. This article develops an obsidian provenance study, based on chemical composition that permits to determine that obsidian found in Egypt came from neither Anatolia nor the Arabian Peninsula. Egyptian obsidian has a compositions similar to that from the Porc Epic cave in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Considering the evolution of East African Paleolithic and Neolithic source-site distances, the most likely sources were less than 250 km away from the Porc Epic cave. The results of the study permit to suggest that terrestrial and/or Nilotic exchange routes were more likely than maritime routes involving the Red Sea and the coasts of Eritrea and the Arabian Peninsula. The ‘down-the-line’ exchange model would incorporate the Gash Delta and the Nubian A-Group.