Sources of Archaeological Obsidian on Sakhalin Island (Russian Far East)

Instrumental neutron activation analysis was performed on 79 obsidian tools and flakes from 35 sites on Sakhalin Island dating from Upper Paleolithic (c.19,000bp ) to Early Iron Age (c.2000–800bp ). Due to the absence of volcanic glass on Sakhalin Island, raw materials from the nearest obsidian sources on Hokkaido Island, such as Oketo, Shirataki, Tokachi-Mitsumata, and Akaigawa, were also analysed. A strong correlation between the chemical compositions of obsidian artefacts from Sakhalin and volcanic glass sources from Hokkaido was discovered. In particular, the Oketo and Shirataki sources were used for tool manufacturing throughout all of Sakhalin Island's prehistory. The distances between sources and archaeological sites range from 200–1000km. The intensive exchange of raw materials continued and even intensified after the appearance of the La Pérouse (Soya) Strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin about 10,000–8000bp. The Sakhalin Island populations were deeply involved in the obsidian exchange network centered on Hokkaido.