Provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Chalcolithic site of Dava Göz in NW IRAN using portable XRF

Abstract This article presents the preliminary results of the analysis of the obsidian collection from the Chalcolithic settlement of Dava Goz in northwestern Iran. Dava Goz is one of the few settlements in this area that has been excavated using modern techniques, and has provided new information on the development of the communities in the Lake Urmia basin from the sixth to the fourth millennia BCE (5400–3700/3600 BCE), including the Neolithic/Transitional Chalcolithic (Period IA), the Early Chalcolithic (Dalma = Period IB) and the Late Chalcolithic (Pisdeli = LC1 = Period II; Chaff-Faced Ware horizon = LC2 = Period III) phases. The analysis of the settlement's material culture also enables some preliminary conclusions regarding the interactions between the groups situated north of Lake Urmia and the contemporary Caucasian cultures, as well as with those located farther west and south, in eastern Anatolia and in the Syro-Mesopotamian region. The characterization of 126 artifacts from three periods using a portable XRF machine indicates throughout the phases that changes occurred in procurement activity. In the earlier phases (Transitional Chalcolithic and Dalma), procurement more closely resembles a polysource pattern, dominated by one main obsidian outcrop and complemented by several, less represented sources of that raw material. This pattern however appears to change in the later phase of the site's occupation (LC2/CFW) where a clear domination of one obsidian source is represented. This development could be connected to a disruption in procurement networks and most probably in transhumance patterns as well.