Origin of obsidian tools from Ubaid and Rick Abad in Little Zab basin, Northwestern Iran

•The sources of obsidian artifacts of little Zab basin in Northwestern Iran were identified.•All of obsidian in Little Zab basin came only from the Meydan Dağ and Nemrut Dağ sources.•Exchange of raw material through the roads extending westward into Iraqi Kurdistan and northern Mesopotamia. Decades of obsidian provenance studies have been conducted in different areas of northwestern Iran. Unlike other parts of northwestern Iran, there have been no obsidian studies in the Little Zab basin. Despite the importance of this basin, only a limited number of excavations and archeological studies in this area have been conducted. The artefacts in the present study came from Rick Abad and Ubaid, sites along the Iran-Iraq border. All of the artefacts were discovered to be from sources in Turkey and none from Armenia. It seems that the cultural transformation taking place in the Little Zab basin had almost no effect on the interaction areas and exchange routes in the western part of Lake Urmia which connected to Anatolia, or the roads extending westward into Iraqi Kurdistan and northern Mesopotamia.