Provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Wolseongdong Paleolithic site, Korea, and its archaeological implications

摘要

The provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Wolseongdong Paleolithic site in Korea has hitherto been uncertain. A previous study was unable to identify the source despite the availability of major/minor element concentrations, strontium isotopic composition, and KeAr age. We have revisited the problem, and obtained geochemical data for 100 obsidian artifacts from Wolseongdong using Laser Ablation - Inductive Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). It was found that all lithics originated from a single source located around 700 km away, at the Paektusan Volcano on the DPR Korea/Chinese border. Our findings highlight the necessity of reliable data analysis and quality assurance for obsidian characterization studies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.