Publications
*Denotes student author
Frahm, E. 2019. Introducing the Peabody-Yale Reference Obsidians (PYRO) sets: Open-source calibration and evaluation standards for quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 27, 101957, doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101957.
Frahm, E., Kandel, A.W., Gasparyan, B. 2019. Upper Palaeolithic settlement and mobility in the Armenian highlands: agent-based modeling, obsidian sourcing, and lithic analysis at Aghitu-3 Cave. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, doi.org/10.1007/s41982-019-00025-5.
Frahm, E., Lassen, A.W., Wagensonner, K. 2019. Gods and demons, Anatolia and Egypt: Obsidian sourcing of Mesopotamian amulets and cylinder seals using portable XRF. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24: 978-992.
Frahm, E., Brody, L.R. 2019. Origins of obsidian at the “Pompeii of the Syrian Desert:” Sourcing lithic artifacts from the Yale-French excavations at Dura-Europos. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24: 608-622.
Frahm, E., Tryon, C.A. 2018. Origins of Epipalaeolithic obsidian artifacts from Garrod’s excavations at Zarzi cave in the Zagros foothills of Iraq. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21:472-485.
Frahm, E. 2018. Ceramic studies using portable XRF: From experimental tempered ceramics to imports and imitations at Tell Mozan, Syria. Journal of Archaeological Science 90:12-38.
Frahm, E., Tryon, C.A. 2018. Later Stone Age toolstone acquisition in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya: Portable XRF of Eburran obsidian artifacts from Leakey’s excavations at Gamble’s Cave II. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 18:475-486.
Frahm, E. 2017. First hands-on tests of an Olympus Vanta portable XRF analyzer to source Armenian obsidian artifacts. International Association for Obsidian Studies Bulletin 58:8-23.
Frahm, E., Sherriff, J., Wilkinson, K.N., Beverly, E.J., Adler, D.S., Gasparyan, B. 2017. Ptghni: A new obsidian source in the Hrazdan River Basin, Armenia. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14:55–64.
Frahm, E., Hauck, T.C. 2017. Origin of an obsidian scraper at Yabroud Rockshelter II (Syria): Implications for Near Eastern social networks in the early Upper Palaeolithic. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 13:415–427.
Frahm, E., Goldstein, S.T.*, Tryon, C.A. 2017. Late Holocene forager-fisher and pastoralist interactions along the Lake Victoria shores, Kenya: Perspectives from portable XRF of obsidian artifacts. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 11:717-742.
Select Presentations
Frahm, E., 2019. Imports vs. Imitations: A Case Study in Portable XRF for Ceramic Studies. Integrative Approaches to Ceramic Anthropology in Early China: New Directions in Pottery Research. Tang Center for Early China, Columbia University, 14-15 November.
Frahm, E., Adler, D., Tushabramishvili, N. 2019. Walking from New York City to Knoxville: Origins of Late Pleistocene obsidian artifacts at Ortvale Klde (Georgia) and increased scales of interaction from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. Paleoanthropology Society Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 9-10 April.
Frahm, E. 2019. Beyond the Technical Revolution: Epistemological Shifts in Archaeological XRF (or: “The World of XRF Will Never Be the Same Again”). Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 10-14 April.
Frahm, E. 2018. A Neanderthal, a human, and a turtle walk across a landscape: Reconstructing Palaeolithic mobility in Southwest Asia. Archaeology Seminar Series, Boston University, 17 October 2018.
Frahm, E. 2018. Advances in portable XRF for obsidian sourcing in Eastern Africa. Archaeometry in the Service of African Archaeology. Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) 24th biennial conference, Toronto, Canada, 18-21 June.
Frahm, E. 2018. Pack your boots, trowel, and ray gun: Advances in portable XRF for archaeological science. Session: Next Generation Archaeological Science. Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 11-15 April.
Frahm, E. 2017. Faster, Stronger, Smarter: Next-Generation Portable XRF in the Archaeological Sciences. Frontiers in Archaeological Sciences international workshop, Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Rutgers University, 23-25 October.
Frahm, E. 2017. Faster, Stronger, Smarter: Advances in Portable XRF for Cultural Heritage Studies. Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) Internal Seminar Series, 4 October.
Frahm, E. 2017. The Stone Age Was Complex Too: Mobility, Provisioning, and Environment in the Southern Caucasus and East African Rift. Yale Council on Archaeological Studies Brown Bag Series, 22 September.
Select Press Coverage
Obsidian Cliff: Humanity’s Tool Shed for the Last 11,500 Years, The New York Times, 20 March 2023.
The Real Dragonglass: Not Just the Stuff of Fantasy, Obsidian Chronicles Our Deep Past, Discover Magazine, June 2019 issue — excerpts online as “The Real Story Behind Game of Thrones’ Dragonglass,” The Crux, Discover Blogs, 12 April 2019
Tool sharpens focus on Stone Age networking in the Middle East, Science News, 23 May 2017
Paleolithic Obsidian Transported Long Distances, Archaeology Magazine, 24 May 2017