Acknowledgements

Funding

Work on obsidian sourcing was initially supported by two British Academy small grants (“Back to the sources – a geo-archaeological perspective on obsidian data used in the interpretation of long distance contacts in the Neolithic of the Near East” and “A centre of interaction and conspicuous consumption? Obsidian use in the late Neolithic of the Near East: the case of Arpachiyah”) and a CHARISMA, Eu-ARTECH transnational access award to use the PIXE facilities at the AGLAE laboratory, Research Department of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musé de France. We were subsequently aided by Research Support Fund of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester. Our pXRF instrument was purchased by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester.

Geological source material

Our primary database of geological obsidian was collected by Akihiko  Mochizuchi and Katsuji Kobayashi, and we are indebted to their generosity. We are very grateful for further samples provided by F.-X. Le Bourdonnec , K. Martirosyan-Olshansky, M. Arimura, C. Chataigner, M.D. Glascock and others.