Manchester Obsidian Laboratory

In 2014, the Manchester Obsidian Laboratory was founded as a collaboration between Stuart Campbell (University of Manchester), Elizabeth Healey (University of Manchester) and Osamu Maeda (University of Tsukuba). Our main research focus is on obsidian in the Middle East, at all periods of history and prehistory, but we have also worked on obsidian from other parts of the world, most recently including John Dee’s obsidian mirror. To date we have analysed more than 6,500 archaeological artefacts and more than 1,500 geological samples.