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Raw material choices and technical practices as indices of cultural change: Characterizing obsidian consumption at Mycenaean Quartier Nu, Malia (Crete)

This paper takes a practice-based approach to the study of cultural identity, focusing on how raw material and technical choices involved in the production of quotidian tools served to both reproduce, and reflect a social group’s very way of being. We then consider the (dis)continuity of obsidian blade-making traditions from Middle–Late Bronze Age Malia (north-central Crete), i.e., before and after a period of island-wide destructions, and appearance of foreign elements believed to reflect the arrival of a population from the Greek mainland (Mycenaeans). Methodologically this involves an integrated, ‘thick description’ obsidian characterisation study to detail long-term cultural traditions, including the use of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to source the raw materials of 36 artifacts. The results show a significant degree of continuity in the community’s lithic traditions, suggesting that many of the innovative features at Malia can be interpreted in t

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