Obsidianul din aşezările aurignaciene din nord-vestul României
Obsidian from the Northwestern Romanian Aurignacian settlements

Summary/Abstract: The earliest obsidian tools on the current territory of Romania were found in the Aurignacian sites from North-West. In other regions, they were produced later, in the Gravettian (one bladelet in Transilvania and eight bladelets in Moldavia). In the North-Western Romania, the production of obsidian tools is significant, starting with the Aurignacian and evolving throughout the Gravettian. In the Aurignacian sites, retouched tools were found associated with cores and blanks. Remetea Şomoş I is presumed to be a site where obsidian tools were produced, since the lithics found here were illustrating all the reduction stages of the chaîne opératoire, from core preparation to discarded pieces. The knapping methods employed were frontal or semi-turning. The core edge exhibits traces of fine abrasion. Among the non-retouched blanks (blades and flakes), 90% of them were obtained through the use of hard hammer. The knapper was striking very close to the edge of striking surface (a method that produces thin platforms). The blades are narrow (average = 17.5 mm) and thin (average = 3.5 mm). The most numerous pieces are the small flakes (between 10 and 30 mm). The tools (side scrapers, end scrapers, truncations) were generally made on bigger blades (average length = 23.87 mm, average width = 6.37 mm). The obsidian is mostly black, but there are some grey pieces as well.No obsidian deposits were found through geological and archaeological surveys, but some perlite deposits were identified. The specialists consider the obsidian to originate from more remote areas, as Eastern Slovakia or Tokay (Hungary). Even though the surveys didn’t reveal any obsidian deposit, it is likely that they existed at the time, since the obsidian usually occurs together with the perlite. As for the populations, it is possible that they came from other regions of the Great Carpathian Depression: Eastern Slovakia, Southern Poland or southern Ukraine. They had the knowledge and skills for knapping the obsidian, which allowed them to work the volcanic glass from the local deposits.

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