‘They came from the ends of the earth’: long-distance exchange of obsidian in the High Arctic during the Early Holocene

Abstract

Zhokhov Island in the Siberian High Arctic has yielded evidence for some of the most remote prehistoric human occupation in the world, as well as the oldest-known dog-sled technology. Obsidian artefacts found on Zhokhov have been provenanced using XRF analysis to allow comparison with known sources of obsidian from north-eastern Siberia. The results indicate that the obsidian was sourced from Lake Krasnoe—approximately 1500km distant—and arrived on Zhokhov Island c . 8000 BP. The archaeological data from Zhokhov therefore indicate a super-long-distance Mesolithic exchange network.