
</span> <span style="color: #888888;"> </span><br /><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></div>
<p>www.obsidianuseproject.org</p>
<p><span style="color: #888888;">The utilization of Obsidian, a natural volcanic glass, within the Anatolian communities is the core of the Obsidian Use  Project. Obsidian extracted from two regions, Central Anatolia (Cappadocia) and  Eastern Anatolia (Bingöl, Van Lake area) were widely diffused in the Near-East.  These raw materials were transported over hundreds of kilometers the most  probably through exchange networks. Mechanical properties of obsidians allow the manufacture of a wide range of objects through different kinds of  techniques and methods of knapping and polishing. Objects are mainly, for the periods  under study, tools and secondarily, bracelets, pendants, vessels or mirrors. </span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> Obsidian is therefore for archaeologists a key element to study multiple technical practices related to different kind of  subsistence or craft activities: harvesting, hunting, butchery, treatment of vegetal  and animal materials (bone, antler, skin, hide) and work of different kind  of rocks. Obsidian reveals as well social practices: identification of  exchange networks, funeral practices and ritual of foundation. Among the main  questions, the way in which the communities adopted the raw material, the rhythms  and modalities of the adoption depend on the regional diversity in obsidian  procurements, in the economies of the villages and in technical traditions. </span></div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> At the present state of the research, chemical analysis on obsidians allow us to identify the roads of diffusion of the raw  material but not to identify the social mechanisms which were behind. Our aim is to  identify such mechanisms with the help of a technological approach, to analyze  the way in which the ancient communities manufactured and used their lithic  tools, to better understand the organization of these communities and their social  links. </span></div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #888888;"> The Department of Prehistory of the University of Istanbul and the  French Institute of Anatolian Studies of Istanbul (IFEA) are associated within this project which has been initiated by Laurence Astruc, <a target="_self" href="index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=179&Itemid=248">Nur-Balkan-Atlı</a>,  <a target="_self" href="index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=341&Itemid=248">Semra  Balcı</a>, <a target="_self" href="index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=339&Itemid=248">Ciler  Altınbilek</a> and <a target="_self" href="index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=342&Itemid=248">Nurcan  Kayacan</a> in 2008. The study of the archaeological assemblages (technological and use-wear  analysis) is here based on a fundamental research on the mechanisms of wear held  by the Laboratory of Tribology and System Dynamics/Centrale Lyon. Tribologists  and archaeologists study wear phenomena with complementary methods. The  project is contributing on a methodological point of view to the development of  studies on obsidian artefacts in other regions: already following the activity  of several members of the team in Levant and Mesopotamia and in Eastern  Mediterranean.       This program is financed by the National Research Agency (ANR),  Programme Blanc 2009-2011(ANR-08-BLAN-0318-02). </span><br /><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></div>