Provenance study on obsidian artifacts from Helong(和龍) Dadong(大洞) Site, Jilin Province, Northeast China

Portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) has been used to test the main and trace elements of obsidian artifacts from the Helong dadong Site. And the obsidian ores from the northern Korea, Nagano and Hokkaido in Japan have also been analysed. The results indicate that the obsidian artifacts in different types, such as blades, microblades, micro blade cores, scrappers, carvers, points, bifaces and the processing pieces share the similar characteristics. It indicates that the obsidian artifacts in different types share the same provenance, and they were made in the local. And we noticed the special type of carvers from the sites in the north and middle Japan, the Huangwu type bifaces. The obsidian carvers of Huangwu type bifaces from the Helongdadong Sites hare the same trace elements characteristics with the other artifacts excavated in Helongdadong, but it is different from the obsidian carvers of Huangwu type bifaces from Japan. It indicates that the obsidian carvers of Huangwu type bifaces from the Helongdadong Site and Japan used different source of obsidian ores. Further study shows that the obsidian artifacts from Helongdadong Sites hare the same similar trace elemental characteristics with the obsidian ores from the northern Korea. Through investigation, we know the obsidian ores from the northern Korea came from the eastern side of Changbai Mountain. Therefore, the obsidian artifacts from the Helongdadong Site might be made by the obsidian ores around Changbai Mountain. From this study, we know PXRF and trace elemental analysis has broad application prospects on the provenance study of obsidian and other stone artifacts in China.