Non-destructive sourcing of bronze age near eastern obsidian artefacts: Redeveloping and reassessing electron microprobe analysis for obsidian sourcing

Despite predictions in the 1980s that electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) would become a popular technique for obsidian sourcing, few studies have used it with this goal, and most of them are now outdated and unrepresentative of modern EMPA. For example, Merrick and Brown (1984) recorded their data on punch cards. Furthermore, these studies destructively prepared artefacts for analysis. The research at hand endeavoured: (1) to establish the modern capabilities of EMPA for obsidian sourcing; and (2) to develop and evaluate procedures for non-destructive artefact analysis. Issues such as diagenetic effects and compatibility with NAA and XRF data were also investigated.