The Carpathian obsidians reconsidered: An application of Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (pXRF)

• Portable XRF analyses of obsidian from seven geological exposures in the Carpathians. • Comparisons with prior results from EDXRF, ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS and NAA. • Recommendations for best practice in obsidian provenance studies. This paper reviews previous research on the chemical characterization of Carpathian obsidians to distinguish between geological sources and correlate archaeological finds with specific sources. We also present new Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) measurements for obsidian samples collected from seven geological locations in the Carpathian obsidian province and compare the results with those obtained by previous researchers employing laboratory-based EDXRF, LA-ICP-MS, ICP-MS and NAA. Our findings have implications for the terminology applied to obsidian sources in the Carpathians and emphasize the importance of accurately georeferencing the obsidian samples used for source characterization.