What are these blades for? Flint blade production and circulation in the Final Neolithic Sardinia

At the end of the Neolithic (at the bridge between the 5th and 4th millennia BC), concurrently with the origin of the Ozieri Culture, obsidian was the most exploited lithic resource in Sardinia. During this time, the early stages of the obsidian reduction system seem to have been located in close proximity to the primary outcrops on the Monte Arci massif. In these areas, raw matter reduction was essentially addressed the creation of preforms of polyhedral cores for a blade production trajectory; the end products were distributed afterwards through organized exchange networks. In the same period, many flint sources were exploited but mainly at a local level. Yet, some other sources in the North Sardinia Oligo-Miocene basin of Perfugas (Anglona region) were exploited on a supra-local scale, even in the first phase of the Ozieri culture (the first half of the 4th millennium). This good-quality material circulated in the form of long blades obtained especially by the pressure technique, even boosted by a long lever. Despite the wide availability of other good-quality raw materials, especially obsidian, these artefacts are made only of this quality of flint. The end of this production is still uncertain, but flint pressure blades were still in circulation at the end of the 4th millennium. Although multiple factors may explain this evidence, cultural and social explanations seem to be among the most relevant.