Modern Description:
At the small promontory of Bombarda there is a French Military Cemetery and monument to soldiers of the Crimean War. Beyond, the path enters an area of vulcanological interest: just offshore is the 50m thick lava apron on the sea-bed known as the ‘Bombarda Submarine Dome'. The path itself passes a shallow pool active with bubbling gas and a brightly coloured gash or vent in the cliff above, referred to locally as the ‘volcano'. It is on the hill, above this point, that the island's principal obsidian deposits are to be found. The hill of Nýchia ('fingernails' -- the proverbial term for obsidian in Armenia and presumably elsewhere is 'Satan's fingernails.') can be approached by track either from the northwestern corner of Adámas, behind Langada bay, or south from Trypití and Pláka. Half way between Adámas and Trypití, on the top of the hill, a rough track leads off perpendicularly to the southwest, passing just below the highest point of the hill. In this area the ground to all sides is covered with small pieces of black shiny obsidian, naturally fragmented into small shards, many with razor-sharp edges: in the very earliest times it was not even necessary to fashion the pieces, but simply to select those best adapted for use as cutting implements. After about 200m, there are areas of ‘débitage', or scrap heaps, from Neolithic workshops; in other areas, there are blocks of larger dimensions. Looking at the glistening fragments of obsidian on Nychia Hill, it is hard to imagine that one is looking at the earliest traded commodity of the Mediterranean— the ‘black gold' of prehistory. It was essential for hunting, fishing, preparing food, cutting the reeds and wood for roofing, and for building the boats by which it was to be exported. Because its sources were limited, and its uses for cutting so many, obsidian was collected from here, fashioned in workshops on site, and distributed along trade routes in rudimentary sail-less boats to every distant corner of the Aegean and beyond: obsidian from Milos has been found in Palaeo/Mesolithic sites in mainland Greece, and its increasingly wide distribution around the Aegean area follows not longer after.
Trismegistos Geo: 15751
Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands 
(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)
