Abstract Ethiopia is rich in obsidian and prehistoric peoples were utilizing it to make artifacts since at least the Early Stone Age. The unique chemical compositions of obsidian are of considerable interest to archaeologists when obsidian artifacts are recovered at prehistoric sites, both in terms of determining provenance and cultural exchange. Here we present electron microprobe analyses to characterize the major and minor element compositions of a suite of obsidian samples from 45 volcanic source locations along a 700 km extent of the Main Ethiopian Rift and the Afar Triangle. Of the 62 analyzed obsidian, 50 are classified as rhyolite, with subordinate numbers of trachyte and dacite. The Main Ethiopian Rift and its extension into the Afar region to the north have produced obsidian with different chemical affinities which may prove useful in narrowing down possible source regions for artifacts for which sources have not yet been discovered and/or analyzed.

中文翻译：

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埃塞俄比亚黑曜石成分初探

摘要 埃塞俄比亚盛产黑曜石，至少从石器时代早期开始，史前民族就利用黑曜石制作工艺品。在史前遗址发现黑曜石文物时，考古学家对黑曜石独特的化学成分产生了相当大的兴趣，无论是确定出处还是文化交流。在这里，我们展示了电子微探针分析，以表征沿埃塞俄比亚主裂谷和阿法尔三角 700 公里范围内 45 个火山源位置的一组黑曜石样品的主要和次要元素组成。在分析的 62 颗黑曜石中，50 颗被归类为流纹岩，其次是粗面岩和英安岩。