The island of Melos in the Cyclades was an important ancient source of obsidian. A relatively rare volcanic rock, it was valued for its ability to hold an extremely sharp edge, superior even to bronze or iron. Technically a glass, obsidian can be polished to produce a mirror-like reflection.
These polished obsidian rocks which date to the Neolithic period are the earliest known mirrors.
Obsidian flakes may be obtained by striking them from a core with a sharp blow. These could be used as knives, spear-points, arrowheads, or the blades of a scythe.
Obsidian bladelets were made by striking them off of a core. The edge produced by this method is extremely sharp.
Unique among the objects made from obsidian are several obsidian bowls created by grinding and polishing. Such bowls must have required an enormous amount of time and skill to create.
Left: An obsidian bowl from Tepe Gawra in northern Iraq dated by its excavators to the 4th millennium BC. Right: An obsidian bowl from the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC inscribed with a Hittite cuneiform text on its rim.1Samaya dedicated this bowl on her own, in the presence of Maza-Karhuha, the ruler, and had it made on the time when Labarna Tudhaliya attacked Tarwiza.
Distribution
It is not often that archaeologists can pinpoint the exact place an artifact originated but they may do so with obsidian since no two sources are exactly alike and outcroppings are relatively rare. Obsidian obtained from the Cyclades has been found widely distributed throughout the Aegean during the Early Bronze Age but did not reach the shores of Syria or the southern Levant where more ready supplies of obsidian could be obtained from the Taurus Mountains of eastern Anatolia instead.1Renfrew 2011 Ethiopia was the primary supplier of obsidian to Egypt.
Renfrew, C.
The Emergence of Civilisation : The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium BC.
Oxford Oakville, CT: David Brown Book Co., 2011. Link