Determination of the source for prehistoric obsidian artifacts from the lower reaches of Kolyma River, Northeastern Siberia, Russia, and its wider implications

Geochemical analysis of 102 obsidian artifacts from the lower reaches of the Kolyma River was performed to understand the provenance of the raw material; previously, there were no such studies in this region. Sites under investigation belong to the Arctic Neolithic, generally dated to ca. 6000–1500 BP. Based on the data for potential obsidian sources in Northeastern Siberia and neighboring territories, available to us, it was found that all obsidian artifacts originated from the Lake Krasnoe source in Chukotka, with a straight-line distance of ca. 800–1100 km from archaeological sites of the Kolyma River. This is a remarkable example of long-distance exchange/transport of obsidian in Northeastern Siberia during the Stone Age. The Lake Krasnoe locale was the primary obsidian source for prehistoric populations in this vast region, including Chukotka, the Kolyma River basin, and Okhotsk Sea coast; this obsidian was also identified at some Alaskan sites near the Bering Strait.