The Fission-Track Analysis: an alternative technique for provenance studies of prehistoric obsidian artefacts

Comparison of flssion-track parameters - age and track densities - is an alternative tool for correlating obsidian artefacts with their potential natural sources. This method was applied by different fission-track groups in various regions and results were compared with those obtained using the more popular provenance identification techniques based on chemical composition studies. Hundreds of analyses prove that fission-tràck dating is a complementary technique which turns out to be very useful, specially when the chemical ' composition does not fully discriminate different sources. Archaeologically significant results were obtained applying the fission-track analysis in various regions of earth.