) The earliest evidence of long-distance trade in obsidian occurs during the late-glacial period, in the still-open landscapes before the spread of forests, when it circulated among Epipalaeolithic hunting and foraging groups around the Fertile Crescent. Two chains of connection are already evident: obsidian from the Bingöl region of south-east Turkey reached Iraqi Kurdistan (via the Hilly Flanks route), and obsidian from the Cappadocian area of central Turkey was carried across the Taurus to the middle Euphrates and the northern Levant (the Levantine Corridor).