Modern obsidian scalpels look nothing like the decorative flint-knapped knives of Neolithic man, often resembling their modern counterparts in everything except for the blade edge, ...

In fact, some surgeons use obsidian scalpels. It is so sharp that many people who work with it, including the staff members of the Yellowstone archaeology lab, keep a box of Band-Aids within reach.

A new analysis of hundreds of obsidian artifacts from the Aztec Empire has revealed the vast trade networks that supplied obsidian, sometimes even from rivals.

Obsidian, naturally occurring volcanic glass, is smooth, hard, and far sharper than a surgical scalpel when fractured, making it a highly desirable raw material for crafting stone tools for almost ...

Obsidian, naturally occurring volcanic glass, is smooth, hard, and far sharper than a surgical scalpel when fractured, making it a highly desirable raw material for crafting stone tools for almost ...

Obsidian is a dark, natural glass, formed when lava cools without crystallizing. Humans have used it for pottery, arrowheads and even surgical scalpels.

A greenish obsidian blade, believed to have been found on the Texas Panhandle, may be from the 16th-century expedition led by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a new study ...

Working in a Bronze Age graveyard in Ikiztepe, Turkey, archaeologist Önder Bilgi has uncovered 14 skulls with rectangular cut marks. He believes the Ikiztepe people used obsidian "scalpels," found ...

Önder Bilgi talks about his discovery of a razor-sharp 4000-year-old scalpel and what it was originally used for. Where are you digging? At an early Bronze Age settlement called Ikiztepe, in the ...

Modern obsidian scalpels look nothing like the decorative flint-knapped knives of Neolithic man, often resembling their modern counterparts in everything except for the blade edge, ...