Characterization by Mössbauer Spectroscopy and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Peruvian Obsidians for Provenance Studies: A Preliminary Study

The identification of geological sources of obsidians collected in archaeological sites provides important information about circulation routes and sociocultural relationships during prehistoric periods. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained by MS and EPR on geological obsidians from Ayacucho and Arequipa, in Peru and on archaeological obsidian artifacts from Cerrillos, an early Paracas site of the upper Ica valley, south of Lima (Peru).