Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T06:26:18.772Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Basalt bifacial tool production in the southern Levant: a glance at the quarry and workshop site of Giv'at Kipod, Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Danny Rosenberg
Affiliation:
Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel (Email: aromat@netvision.net.il)
Ron Shimelmitz
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Assaf Nativ
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Extract

The authors describe the discovery of a Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic basalt axe factory in the Manasseh Hills in Israel and suggest it had a primary role in the region for the production of these functional and symbolic tools. The form of discarded roughouts and flakes is used to deduce the principal eventual product and its sequence of manufacture.

Type
Research article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alon, D. 1977. A Chalcolithic temple at Gilat. Biblical Archaeologist 40(2): 63–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anati, E., Avnimelech, M., Haas, N. & Meyerhof, E.. 1973. Hazorea I (Archivi del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici 5). Capo de Ponte: Edizioni del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici.Google Scholar
Barkai, R. 2001. PPNA flint and stone axes: technological, functional and symbolic aspects, in Maeir, A. M. & Baruch, E. (ed.) Settlement, civilization and culture. Proceedings of the conference in memory of David Alon: 1747. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Barkai, R. 2005. Flint and stone axes as cultural markers: socio-economic changes as reflected in Holocene flint tool industries of the Southern Levant (Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and Environment 11). Berlin: Ex Oriente.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. & Edmonds, M.. 1993. Interpreting the axe trade: production and exchange in Neolithic Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bruder, J. S. 1982. Ground stone quarries in the northern Hohokam periphery: implications concerning the development of a pan-regional exchange network. Term Paper for ASB591, Demography and Social Organization, Arizona State University.Google Scholar
Campbell-Smith, W. 1965. The distribution of jade axes in Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 31:2533.Google Scholar
Claris, P. & Quartermaine, J.. 1989. The Neolithic quarries and axe factory sites of Great Langdale and Scafell Pike: a new field survey. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55:125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooney, G. 1998. Breaking stones, making places: the social landscape of axe production sites, in Gibson, A. & Simpson, D. (ed.) Prehistoric ritual and religion: 108-18. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 1989. The circulation of Neolithic stone and flint axes: a case study from Wales and the Mid-West of England. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55:2743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorrell, P. G. 1983. Appendix A: stone vessels, tools and objects, in Kenyon, K. & Holland, A.T. (ed.) Jericho Volume 5: the pottery phases of the Tell and other finds: 485575. London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Dothan, M. 1959. Excavation at Horvat Beter (Beersheba). Atiqot 2:171 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Erdogu, B. 2000. The problems of dating prehistoric axe factories and neolithisation in Turkish Thrace. Documenta Praehistorica 27:155-66.Google Scholar
Frankel, R. & Getzov, N.. 1997. Map of Akhziv (1), Map of Hanita (2). Jerusalem: Archaeological Survey of Israel, Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y. & Dag, D.. 2006. Gesher: a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in the central Jordan Valley, Israel. A final report. Berlin: Ex Oriente.Google Scholar
Getzov, N. In press. Other finds from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods: Strata 20-16, in Getzov, N., Abshalom-Gorni, D., Tatcher, A., Lieberman-Vander, R., Smithline, H. & Stern, E. J. (ed.) Horbat Uza 1991: final report of the 1991 excavations (IAA Reports). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Gopher, A. 1997. Ground stone tools and other stone objects from Netiv Hagdud, in Bar-Yosef, O. & Gopher, A. (ed.) An early Neolithic village in the Jordan Valley. Part 1: the archaeology of Netiv Hagdud (Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research 43): 151–76. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Gopher, A. & Orrelle, E.. 1995. The ground stone assemblages of Munhata, a Neolithic site in the Jordan Valley - Israel : a report (Cahiers des Missions arch´eologiques franc¸aises en Isra¨el 7). Paris: Association Pal´eorient.Google Scholar
Huckell, B. B. 1986. A ground stone implement quarry on the Lower Colorado River, Northern Arizona (Bureau of Land Management Cultural Resource Series Monograph 3). Phoenix (AZ): Bureau of Land Management & Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Kirkbride, D. 1966. Five seasons at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic village of Beidha in Jordan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 98:872.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Roux, C. T. 1998. Specialized production, diffusion, and exchange during the Neolithic in Western France: the example of polished stone axes, in Edmonds, M. & Richards, C. (ed.) Understanding the Neolithic of North-Western Europe: 370-84. Glasgow: Cruithne Press.Google Scholar
McCarthy, F. D. 1976. Australian Aboriginal Stone Implements. Sydney: Australian Museum Trust.Google Scholar
Ozbaek, O. 2000. A prehistoric stone axe production site in Turkish Thrace: Hamaylitarla. Documenta Praehistorica 27: 167–70.Google Scholar
Paz, I., Rosenberg, D. & Nativ, A.. 2005. Excavations at Lod – the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods and an Egyptian presence in the Early Bronze Age IB. Salvage Excavation Reports 2: 114-58.Google Scholar
Petrequin, P. & Paetrequin, A.-M.. 1993. From polished stone tool to the sacred axe: the axes of the Danis of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, in Berthelet, A. & Chavaillion, J. (ed.) The use of tools by human and non human primates: 359-77. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
P´etrequin, P., P´etrequin, A.-M., Jeudy, F., Jeunesse, C., Monnier, J. L., Pelegrin, J. & Praud, I. I. 1998. From the raw material to the Neolithic stone axe: production processes and social context, in Edmonds, M. & Richards, C. (ed.) Understanding the Neolithic of North-Western Europe: 277311. Glasgow: Cruithne Press.Google Scholar
Prausnitz, M. W. 1970. From hunter to farmer and trader. Jerusalem: Sivan Press.Google Scholar
Raban, A. 1999. Map of Mishmar Ha-'Emeq. Jerusalem: Archaeological Survey of Israel, Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Rosen, S. 1997. Lithics after the Stone Age. Walnut Creek (CA): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, D. In press a. The stone assemblage of Hagoshrim – Continuity and change in the Neolithic of Northern Israel, in Getzov, N. (ed.) Hagoshrim (IAA Reports). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, D. In press b. Stone tools of bronze smiths community – The stone assemblage of Early Bronze Ashkelon-Barnea, in Golani, A. (ed.) Report on the excavations at Ashkelon-Barnea (IAA Reports). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, D. & Getzov, N.. 2006. A basalt chipping floor from Level VI (PPNC) Hagoshrim. Journal of the Israeli Prehistoric Society 36: 117–28.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, D. & Gopher, A.. In press. Food processing tools and other groundstone implements from Gilgal I and Gilgal III, in Bar-Yosef, O., Gopher, A. & Goring-Morris, A. N. (ed.) Gilgal. Early Neolithic occupations in the Lower Jordan Valley: the excavations of Tamar Noy (American School of Prehistoric Research Monograph 4). Winona Lake (IN): Brill Academic.Google Scholar
Roshwalb, A. F. 1981. Protohistory in the Wadi Gazzeh: a typological and technological study based on the Macdonald excavations. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University College London.Google Scholar
Rowan, Y. M., Levy, T. E., Alon, D. & Goren, Y.. 2006. Gilat's ground stone assemblage: stone fenestrated stands, bowls, platters and related artifacts, in Levy, T. E. (ed.) Archaeology, anthropology and cult: 575684. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Safrai, Z. & Linn, M.. 1988. The economic structure of Geva, in Mazar, B. (ed.) Geva. Archaeological discoveries at Tell Abu-Shusha, Mishamar Ha‘Emeq: 120-66. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz H'ameuhad Press (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Schneider, J. S. 1993. Aboriginal milling-implement quarries in eastern California and western Arizona: a behavioral perspective. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Shimelmitz, R., Rosenberg, D., & Nativ, A.. 2005. Giv'at Kipod: a basalt quarry and a workshop for the production of bifacial tools in the Manasseh Hills, Israel. Neo-Lithics 1/05: 912.Google Scholar
Strathern, M. 1969. Stone axes and flake tools: evaluations from two New Guinea Highlands societies. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35:311-29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taute, W. 1994. Pre Pottery Neolithic flint mining and flint workshop activities southwest of the Dead Sea, Israel, in Gebel, H. G. & Kozlowsky, S. K. (ed.) Neolithic chipped stone industries of the Fertile Crescent: 236-56. Berlin: Ex Oriente.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. & Tilley, C.. 1993. The axe and the torso: symbolic structures in the Neolithic of Brittany, in Tilley, C. (ed.) Interpretative archaeology: 225324. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Yerkes, R. W., Barkai, R., Gopher, A. & Bar-Yosef, O.. 2003. Microwear analysis of early Neolithic (PPNA) axes and bifacials tools from Netiv Hagdud in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1051-66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar