This comprehensive book covers the state-of-the-art in obsidian sourcing studies including both current and obsolete practices in the framework of archaeological research. It addresses methodological advances and methodological issues, latest fieldwork research, and application around the world, by region.

This book fosters discussion and reflection on the success story that is obsidian sourcing in Archaeology, to go beyond the conventional manual format. It addresses the methodological issues through a diversity of experts with different approaches and practices, presents the current practices related to the fieldwork aspect of obsidian sourcing studies, and offers an overview of the ongoing fieldwork research across the world. The book provides students and scholars with an up-to-date overview of the current research in the field, as well as a reflection on past and present methodological practices.

François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec (Ph.D. 2007, Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3) is an Associate Professor of Archaeological Sciences at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. He works on the provenance and circulation of lithic raw materials used in prehistoric times, particularly obsidian and flint, with over one hundred scientific publications on these topics. His research on obsidian has focused mainly on peri-Mediterranean regions. He teaches courses in Archaeology and Art History, and is strongly committed to student training. He is currently Deputy Vice-President for Student Life & Campus Experience at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. Since 2022, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the ArcheoSciences journal.

Marie Orange (Ph.D. 2017, Southern Cross University) specialises in the investigation of lithic assemblages for the reconstitution of comprehensive lithic economies and the socio-economic systems within which the raw materials were acquired, transformed, and circulated. Her expertise lies in obsidian studies, for which she uses an integrated provenance/technological approach to reconstitute the reduction sequences for each raw material identified. In the last ten years, her research has led her to work on projects investigating the exploitation of obsidian on Neolithic to Bronze Age sites in the Western Mediterranean, Near East, Caucasus, and North-western Iran. She is currently affiliated with the Archéorient (CNRS UMR 5133) laboratory.

M. Steven Shackley (Ph.D. 1990, Arizona State University) is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, where he taught archaeological geochemistry and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry jointly with the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, lithic technology, quantitative methods, and the prehistory of the North American Southwest for more than 23 years. Receiving US National Science Foundation continuing sponsorship for the Archaeological XRF Lab at Berkeley, he has processed over 100,000 artifacts, mainly obsidian, through that laboratory and the current facility. Publishing hundreds of peer reviewed papers, and numerous books and monographs on these subjects Professor Shackley continues to engage in geological and archaeological XRF analyses at the Geoarchaeological XRF Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.