![]() These results are contextualized within broader patterns of obsidian circulation and use and have important implications for debates surrounding Neolithic obsidian procurement, exchange spheres, and early maritime navigation. Contrary to previous interpretations highlighting the role of Elba and Pianosa in the exchange of obsidian from the geological sources of Sardinia along the coast to northern Italy and France, our results suggest that obsidian also took a more direct open-sea path upwards of 200km from Corsica to the coastal regions of Provence and Languedoc in southern France. As such, it becomes possible to reconstruct the relationships that mediated the distribution of obsidian across the landscape. We argue that similar patterns of obsidian consumption reflect similar procurement mechanisms and the likelihood of more frequent interactions between the people of these communities. This article tests this hypothesis using social network analysis (SNA) to identify the strengths of inter-site relationships through time based on the relative proportions of West Mediterranean obsidian raw materials at 79 Neolithic sites dating from the sixth to fourth millennia BC. This path is posited as the prime route in and out of these islands for both people and objects throughout prehistory largely due to the belief that early-pre-sail-seafarers would have wished to avoid more treacherous open-sea voyages. Scholars typically argue that cultural interaction between the West Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica and the European mainland took place through the Tuscan Archipelago, via such intermediary islands as Elba and Pianosa. ![]() This counter-clockwise Neolithic sailing pattern to Cyprus enabled permanent human settlement of the island and contacts with the mainland. Their return trip was from the east or southeast of Cyprus to the Levant coast. A passage westward or northwestward from the Levant coast to the southern coast of Cyprus cannot be ruled out. Because the present wind pattern is understood to generally resemble that of the Terminal Pleistocene pattern, it is suggested that the optimal sailing route and season from the mainland to Cyprus by Neolithic navigators was from southern Turkey between April and October. The factors that were examined were: sea level options of available watercraft sea conditions and currents navigational skills sailing routes and prevailing seasonal and diurnal wind regimes. We examined the possible routes for sailing from the mainland to Cyprus and back to better understand the relationship between the island and the mainland during these periods. Cyprus as an island could have been reached only by seafaring. Later occupations of the Cypro Pre Pottery Neolithic B from around 10,500 to 9000 cal BP are more numerous and testify to intensive connections with the mainland. Visits to Cyprus intensified and resulted in settlement of the island during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A beginning around 11,000 cal BP. Recent archaeological evidence from Cyprus shows that humans first arrived on the island at around 12,000 calibrated years BP.
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