Obsidian from Armenia

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Vesuvianite

en.wikipedia.org
Yerevan’s Vernisage (arts and crafts market), close to Republic Square, bustles with hundreds of vendors selling a variety
of crafts, many of superb workmanship, on weekends and Wednesdays (though the selection is much reduced mid-week).
The market offers woodcarving, antiques, fine lace, and the hand-knotted wool carpets and kilims that are a Caucasus
specialty. Obsidian, which is found locally, is crafted into an amazing assortment of jewelry and ornamental objects.
Armenian gold smithery enjoys a long and distinguished tradition, populating one corner of the market with a selection of
gold items. Soviet relics and souvenirs of recent Russian manufacture—nesting dolls, watches, enamel boxes and so on,
are also available at the Vernisage.

http://www.hyeetch.nareg.com.
Armenia is rich with semiprecious and ornamental stones such as the jewelry agates, jasper, amethyst, serdoliks, turquoise,
and different types of marble onyx. Obsidian (volcanic glass) has many variations of color and is used in many applications.
Obsidian is found in Northern Armenia, particularly in the Hrazdan region. Jewelry and decorative art works made from these
precious stones have high artistic value throuqhout the world.

http://www.peak.org/obsidian/abstracts_c.html
Obsidian was widely used by our ancestors for tool making. In Georgia and neighbouring Armenia this natural glass was
recognised in several volcanic complexes distributed over wide areas. In the frame of an INTAS research project, 44
samples from the obsidian occurrences of these complexes were analysed using the fission-track (FT) dating method in
order to (1) better constrain the history of Plio-Pleistocene volcanism of this region and (2) to create a reference data-set
for identification of the source of archaeological obsidian artefacts. According to geological expectation, most of the studied
obsidian occurrences yielded Pleistocene ages. Only two volcanic complexes have Pliocene age. The determined formation
ages cluster into restricted groups: 0.042 - 0.120 Ma, 0.25 - 0.40 Ma, 0.43 - 0.56 Ma, 1.17 - 1.38 Ma, 1.53 Ma, 2.34 - 2.63
Ma and 4.26 - 4.56 Ma. These data indicate that volcanic activities characterised by obsidian eruptions developed during
short time spans.