From Reactor to Royalty? Aegean and Anatolian Obsidians from Quartier Mu, Malia (Crete)

Abstract

This paper details the sourcing by neutron activation analysis of 60 obsidian artifacts from Quartier Mu, an important Middle Bronze Age complex at Malia, central Crete. Four sources are represented—three Aegean (Sta Nychia and Dhemenegaki on Melos, plus Giali), and one central Anatolian (East Göllü Dag?), an unusually wide array in an Aegean Bronze Age context, and one that reflects the community’s varied craft-working activities and overseas contacts. The raw materials enjoyed different uses, with clear evidence for the differential consumption of Melian obsidians. Furthermore, the East Göllü Dag? material attests connections with the kingdoms of central Anatolia at a crucial period of Crete’s own (pre)history, the time of the first ‘Minoan palaces’. It is suggested that the movement of this obsidian was embedded within diplomatic contacts and/or the metals trade: tin coming from the east, with Aegean silver channeled to the central Anatolian ka¯ru¯ and their Assyrian sponsors beyond.