Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
7450504 Quaternary International 2018 9 Pages PDF
Abstract
The provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Wolseongdong Paleolithic site in Korea has hitherto been uncertain. A previous study was unable to identify the source despite the availability of major/minor element concentrations, strontium isotopic composition, and K-Ar age. We have revisited the problem, and obtained geochemical data for 100 obsidian artifacts from Wolseongdong using Laser Ablation - Inductive Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). It was found that all lithics originated from a single source located around 700 km away, at the Paektusan Volcano on the DPR Korea/Chinese border. Our findings highlight the necessity of reliable data analysis and quality assurance for obsidian characterization studies.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Earth and Planetary Sciences Geology
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