Obsidian Trade in Poland Dates Back At Least 20,000 Years

WARSAW, POLAND—According to a Science in Poland report, obsidian was used for making tools and weapons in what is now Poland at least 20,000 years ago, even though volcanic glass is not known to occur naturally anywhere in the country. “People [have] always paid special attention to exotic products and raw materials from distant lands,” said Dagmara H. Werra of the Polish Academy of Sciences. “It must have been similar with shiny obsidian.” During the Paleolithic period, Werra explained, obsidian was probably imported in the form of finished tools from what is now Slovakia on the Vistula River, which extends from the western Carpathian Mountains across Poland to the Baltic Sea. And, analysis of obsidian samples revealed some of them originated as far away as southeastern Turkey. Obsidian tools were used to scrape leather and wood, and for processing meat. Marks on some of the blades suggest they were attached to wooden shafts with leather strips to make spears. Werra added that few obsidian processing sites have been found in Poland, but there is some evidence that raw obsidian may have been imported during the Neolithic period and fashioned into tools locally. For more, go to “Obsidian and Empire.”