Organised by: Prof. Steven A. Rosen (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
rosen@bgu.ac.il
Location: Room 612 (6th floor) of the Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
Time: Wednesday 14th April
| Time | Name | Paper Title |
|---|---|---|
| 09.20 | Coqueugniot | From the Mediterranean coast to the steppe: variabilities and dissimilarities between the EBIV lithic industries from Tell Arqa (Lebanon) & al Rawda (Syria) |
| 09.45 | Graves-Brown | Colour, luminosity, metal and flint in Dynastic Egypt |
| 10.10 | Greenfield | The Fall of the House of Flint: A zooarchaeological perspective on the decline of chipped stone tools for butchering animals in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the southern Levant |
| 10.35 | Discussion | |
| 10.45 | COFFEE | COFFEE |
| 11.15 | Gurova | Dichotomy or convergence of prehistoric tribulum inserts: Trans-regional comparative analysis |
| 11.40 | Healey | The longue durée of obsidian use: is its choice as a raw material significant in the Bronze Age? |
| 12.05 | Discussion | |
| 12.55 | LUNCH | LUNCH |
| 14.00 | Kolankaya-Bostanci | The Decline of Chipped Stone Industry During the Second Millennium B.C: Evidence from Panaztepe, West Anatolia |
| 14.25 | Milevski | Craft specialization and exchange of flint tools in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age |
| 14.50 | Müller-Neuhof | SW-Asian Late Chalcolithic/EB demand for "big-tools": specialised flint exploitation beyond the fringes of settled regions |
| 12.30 | Discussion | |
| 15.45 | COFFEE | COFFEE |
| 16.15 | Nishiaki | Bronze Age settlements and ad-hoc flaked stone tool production on the Middle Euphrates, Syria |
| 16.40 | Rosen | Lithic Variability across the Near East in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Speculations and Hypotheses |
| 17.05 | Tarawneh | From Thermal Flakes to Tabular Scrapers: New Investigations at ardh-Asswwan |
| 17.30 | Vardi | Burins on Canaanean Blades and Canaanean Blades with Impact blows from the Chlcolithic-Early Bronze Age site of Nahal Komem |
| 17.55 | Discussion |
Workshop Description:
Chipped stone assemblages have been recognized as an integral component of material culture in the ancient Near East for more than 100 years. However, the analytic potentials of these assemblages could only begin to bear fruit once the methods of prehistoric archaeology (the study of waste assemblages, attribute approaches to artifact analysis, quantitative/statistical methods, replication and experimental analyses, and microwear studies) developed over the course of the 20th century and were adopted into the study of later period stone tools. With increased sophistication of analysis and recognition of the role of chipped stone in Bronze Age societies in the ancient Near East, the past two decades have seen a major accumulation of basic data in the form of technical reports and studies, assemblage analyses, and sub-regional syntheses of lithic industries. The primary drawback to all of these works has been the lack of large scale synthesis, clearly a function of the political complexities of the region. The following basic questions are to be addressed in the meeting:
- The establishment of basic comparative typology, including technological definitions, so that researchers can communicate across regions. Such types and rubrics as Canaanean blades, tabular (fan-) scrapers, different shapes of arrowheads, and the range of ad hoc tools have been used in different ways across the Near East and it is important that some pan-Near Eastern comprehension of the basic vocabulary be established. These types would be tied to technologies and technological structures.
- A chronology of these types and technologies, both absolute and relative, according to geographic region, can be established. Notably, there are clear differences between regions. Chipped stone arrowheads disappear from the southern Levantine inventory much earlier than from the Mesopotamian. Transverse arrowheads appear primarily in the desert zones.
- Functional contrasts, tied to different chronologies, can also be established and tied to differences in access to raw materials (for example, access to metals as a replacement material, access to flint sources, access to obsidian), differences in activities, and differences in levels of specialization.
- Finally, larger scale schema of social change and dynamics can be constructed, tying the lithic variability to other phenomena. For example, the rise of decline of Canaanean blade technology can hopefully be traced both over time and over space, incorporating social explanations for both its rapid diffusion and apparent displacement at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Similarly, the social aspects of other types (arrowheads, tabular scrapers, and others) can also be tackled.
Workshop Abstracts
From the Mediterranean coast to the steppe: variabilities and dissimilarities between the EBIV lithic industries from Tell Arqa (Lebanon) and al Rawda (Syria)
Dr Eric Coqueugniot (CNRS, France)
Pendant longtemps il a été considéré que les industries lithiques proche-orientales du Chalcolithique récent et du Bronze ancien étaient uniformes, avec des d'outillages domestiques sur éclats rudimentaires et des outillages spécialisés : ‹ racloirs tabulaires › (tabular scrapers) et lames cananéennes (canaanean blades) dont la fonction était unique. Des variations, des spécificités régionales auraient en revanche concerné notamment les pointes de flèches. Situés à des latitudes voisines et relevant de la même phase culturelle (le Bronze ancien IV), les villes de tell Arqa (plaine littorale libanaise) et d'al Rawda (steppe syrienne) présentent des industries lithiques totalement différentes (lames cananéenne très nombreuses sur la côte, très rares dans la steppe). Au delà de ce constat, la présente communication vise à tenter d'expliquer cette dissimilarité car, si les outillages lithiques de tell Arqa semblent assez proches de ceux trouvées tant sur la côte du Levant sud que dans l'Amuq ou en Jezireh syrienne, en revanche ceux des sites de la région des ‹ marges arides › de Syrie centrale apparaissent très différents alors même que les pratiques agricoles y sont largement attestées notamment autour de Rawda.
Colour, luminosity, metal and flint in Dynastic Egypt
Dr Carolyn Graves-Brown (University of Wales Swansea, UK)
The decline of flint in Dynastic Egypt was not a simple linear response to the introduction of metal but exhibits peaks and troughs of decline manifesting in diverse areas of Egyptian life. Some peaks appear related to the introduction of metal, others are unrelated to this material, some have functional causes, others ideological. I briefly describe how I have tried to measure flint decline and the results, but then move onto possible causes of the first peak of decline. This occurs around 2500 BC and is only apparent in elite burials. While flint is commonly used in Egypt until at least 1300 BC it disappears in graves from around 2500 BC. This alone might suggest a particular ideological importance to flint in Early Dynastic Egypt. It is suggested that flint was placed in graves at least partly for its shininess and colour, qualities which were also associated with rebirth. This ideological importance of flint was usurped by arsenical copper. In Early Dynastic Egypt there is archaeological evidence that whiteness and shininess were enhanced for flint by polishing and pale flint and rock crystal was frequently used for grave goods. Flint is even used in jewelry. However, this scintillating use of flint decreases dramatically around 2500 BC. At the same time, arsenical copper, which is lighter coloured than pure copper, takes the place of flint in graves. It seems flint was literally outshone. Texts from all periods of Egyptian history suggests that the shininess and colour of flint was ideologically important and that whiteness and multi-colour were associated with rebirth. The fact that flint continues to be described in shiny terms in late texts might be a factor of redundant metaphor or the conservatism of text.
C.A.Graves-Brown@swansea.ac.uk
The Fall of the House of Flint: A zooarchaeological perspective on the decline of chipped stone tools for butchering animals in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the southern Levant
Prof. Haskel J Greenfield (University of Manitoba, Canada)
In recent years, it has been recognized that chipped stone tools continue to be used after the end of the Neolithic in spite of the introduction of metallurgy. However, the rate of change from a lithic to metal based economy is affected by the type of tool and its various functions. Traditionally, this change is monitored through the frequencies and presence/absence of the various lithic tool types. However, these data are often negatively affected by the haphazardly collected lithic collections from Bronze and later sites. In recent years, an alternative approach to monitoring the shift in technology has been proposed. Microscopic examination of butchering marks on animal bones allows the type of raw material (stone versus metal) and the type of implement (blade versus scraper) to be reconstructed. In this paper, zooarchaeological data from the southern Levant (Israel, Jordan, and Palestinian Authority Territory) will be used to demonstrate the nature and rate of change from a stone to a metal-based animal butchering technology during the Bronze Age. The data demonstrate that chipped stone tools use continues to be widespread during the Early Bronze Age at both urban and rural sites. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, there is a dramatic shift in emphasis to a metal-based technology (c. 80%) corresponding with the spread of high quality tin-bronze metal knives. In the Late Bronze Age, the frequency of chipped stone tools continues to decline. The transition from stone to a metal-based butchering technology is almost complete by the Iron Age. Chipped stone tools have completely disappeared and almost all butchering marks are made by metal knives.
Dichotomy or convergence of prehistoric tribulum inserts: Trans-regional comparative analysis
Dr Maria Gurova (National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria)
The origin of the prehistoric tribulum has only been explored in the last decade. P. Anderson and team, working in the Bronze age of the Near east, have identified Canaanean blades (very large, regular flint blades) as threshing sledge inserts. The latest opinion is presented in numerous articles dedicated to use-wear analysis, combined with experimentation and other interdisciplinary approaches (tribological and phytolite analyses, etc.). An idea that is gaining support is the interpretation of Canaanean blades not as sickle inserts (blades), but as threshing sledge inserts.
On the other hand an exhaustive study by S. Rosen of the lithics from Israel in a broad diachronic, synchronic, typological and stylistic perspective presents Canaanean blades as sickles, products of a specialized sickle manufacture. Unavoidably, the question arises about the correct and relevant functional interpretation of the North Levantine (in the Israel borders) Canaanean blade assemblages, which are still not subject to a detailed micro-wear study.
The Russian specialist N. Skakun and the present author have studied Neolithic and Chalcolithic flint assemblages from Bulgaria, concluding that during the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) the use of the tribulum in prehistoric subsistence activity is indubitable. Archaeological tribulum inserts can be recognized because of their similarity to ethnographical examples in form and especially microscopic wear traces. Tribulum flints from Bulgaria, both ethnographic and prehistoric, have a distinctive elongated ovoid shape obtained by intentional retouch. It is not always evident whether they were made on flakes or elongated blades. Most of the pieces have been used on one edge, but some show bilateral traces of utilisation. The paper will discuss the interpretation of Canaanean blades as tribulum inserts both from large scale ethnographic prospection, as well as based on pilot study results (functional analysis) of flint assemblages from Israel.
The longue durée of obsidian use: is its choice as a raw material significant in the Bronze Age?
Dr Elizabeth Healey (University of Manchester, UK)
Obsidian was used as a raw material for tool manufacture and some times non-utilitarian items including jewellery, mirrors and vessels throughout prehistory and into the Bronze Age. For most communities obsidian was an exotic material and, for archaeologists at least, has a certain fascination. Often it originated from several different and geographically widely separated sources — a circumstance which has been interpreted as communities participating in different 'exchange networks' although only in rare instances has the nature of that 'exchange' been deconstructed. The deployment of exotic materials is usually considered significant when discussing complex communities, their contacts, structures, hierarchies and so forth and so the situation following the collapse of the Uruk, the rise of complex societies in some areas and the continuation of more peripheral communities in others together with the introduction of metal and the eventual development of cities and administrative structures would seem to be the sort of situation in which exotic materials might have had a very telling role. However, this rarely seems to have been explored in any detail. In particular the extent of the acquisition and use of obsidian at this time is surprisingly relatively unknown and poorly understood. In some instances for example we do not know if it was newly acquired or whether old material was re-used. This paper will review the evidence for obsidian use after the end of the Uruk in the hope of trying to establish whether in fact it does have a significant role or whether it is subsumed by the exploitation of other 'recently discovered' exotic materials.
elizabethhealey2004@yahoo.co.uk
The Decline of Chipped Stone Industry During the Second Millennium B.C: Evidence from Panaztepe, West Anatolia
Dr Neyir Kolankaya-Bostanci (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), Mario Martin (Univeristy of Vienna, Austria) and Dr Valentine Roux (University of Paris, France)
Panaztepe, located in the Izmir Region was an important settlement during the second millennium B.C. The archaeological investigations in that settlement shed new light on Middle and Late Bronze Age chipped stone tradition in the western Anatolia and the Aegean world. In these periods, there had been great changes in the use of raw material, production techniques and tools. Although stone implements continued to be made and used in these periods, it seems that obsidian was no longer in demand. Panaztepe has an important role in understanding the changes that occurred during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. While the second millennium B.C deposits at Panaztepe have only a relatively small chipped stone assemblage, a number of statements can be made concerning its form. While in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages Panaztepe had strong architecture and rich pottery, same situation can not be seen in the chipped stone industry. In these periods Panaztepe chipped stone industry can be defined as poor and coarse. It seems that there are two main characteristics of Panaztepe second millennium B.C. chipped stone assemblage: A progressive loss of control over the raw material and drastic decrease in the range of raw material and tool types. Analysis of chipped stone industries of Panaztepe has primary addresses varied issues. In this study I shall try to examine why obsidian is represented with only one sample? What is the place of metallurgy in the decline of chipped stone production and in which ways metallurgy have influence on? And in which way the social and economic construction affected this decline? By answering these questions not only Panaztepe's situation and importance in the Aegean and Anatolia in the second millennium B.C. can be better understood but also, the reasons behind the decline of the chipped stone artifacts can be estimated.
Craft specialization and exchange of flint tools in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age
Dr Ianir Milevski (Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel)
Early Bronze Age (ca. 3,600-2,000 BC) lithic assemblages of the southern Levant have been thoroughly analyzed, both from the technological and typological viewpoints. Among the characteristic flint tools of this period are tabular scrapers and Canaanean (sickle) blades. While the former tool was in use during the previous Chalcolithic (Ghassulian-Beersheva cultures), the Canaanean technology was an innovation of the Early Bronze communities, which spread over the second half of the fourth millennium and the entire third millennium BC.
It is the intention of this lecture to present the results of recent research that examined the relationship of craft specialization and exchange with these tools as commodities against the framework of economic theories on barter and networks. Differentiations in the distribution of these tools will be offered. An attempt to understand the division of labor in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age will also be presented on the basis of the results of this research project.
Our research indicates that each branch of production for the tabular scrapers and the Canaanean blades had a defined network of distribution sometimes associated with related distribution with one probable center, the Canaanean blades had local or regional centers that distribute the blades in several stations and steps. While there is a difficulty to establish the location of the tabular scrapers workshops, it seems that Canaanean blade workshops were located in villages, not in the urban or administrative centers, but in sites dominated by them.
SW-Asian Late Chalcolithic/EB demand for "big-tools": specialised flint exploitation beyond the fringes of settled regions
Dr Bernd Müller-Neuhof (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Germany)
Since a couple of years there is more and more evidence for Late Chalcolithic/EB large scale exploitations of specific flint resources on quarry sites, located far beyond the fringes of permanently settled areas. These exploitations are characterised by a high standard in specialisation in terms of obtaining raw material for the production of large-sized and typologically distinctively tools. Especially the large scale production of cortex tool blanks (also known as fan scraper, tabular scraper or Jafr tool blanks) on several quarry sites in Eastern Jordan has to be emphasised in this context. The character of these sites, possible material differences and the form of production sequences (chaînes opératoire) will be presented here, followed by some hypotheses on the socioeconomic background of the miners and on possible directions of blank distribution.But such a specialised Late Chalcolithic/EB lithic raw material obtainment on quarry sites was not only limited to the production of cortex tool blanks. This is demonstrated by the evidence of at least one quarry site for Canaanean blade cores in the Zagros mountains in Iran, which will also be presented here.
Bronze Age settlements and ad-hoc flaked stone tool production on the Middle Euphrates, Syria
Prof.Yoshihiro Nishiaki (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
Flaked stone assemblages of the Bronze Age in North Syria are known to represent at least two distinctly different technological systems. One is that for production of standardized blades and blade tools, notably Canaanean blades, and the other one is a system for production of non-standardized flake tools, often referred to as ad-hoc or amorphous tools. This paper deals with the latter, which has received only sparse attention in the current literature. The detailed study of the Early Bronze Age lithic assemblages from Tell Ghanem al-Ali on the Middle Euphrates enabled us to define the main characteristics of the flake production strategy in this time period. A comparison with the Chalcolithic flake production documented at Tell Kosak Shamali, situated in the same valley, underscored distinguishing features of the Bronze Age technology, suggesting that the so called ad-hoc technology in the later prehistory should not be considered the same at least on the Middle Euphrates. Against this background, this paper also examines surface materials from our survey of the steppe plateau in the hinterland of the farming settlements on the Euphrates, where numerous flint scatters with amorphous flakes and cores have been discovered. Despite the complete absence of pottery, it argues that many of the flint scatters were derived from short-term stops or campsites of the Bronze Age community.
Lithic Variability across the Near East in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Speculations and Hypotheses
Prof. Steven Rosen (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Examination of the distribution and frequencies of lithic types and technologies across the Near East during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC reveals unexpected variability and consequently great potentials for cultural, social, and historical interpretation. This variability can, in theory, be aligned according to axes of function, raw material, economic organization, and techno-typological tradition (read 'culture' or 'style'). Chronological developments following these axes provide an added dimension. However, attempting to sort out these variables meets problems of fundamental lacunae in data (missing regions and periods), difficulties in defining function due to methodological difficulties and differences between researchers, difficulties in defining raw materials and their properties, and inconsistencies in the definitions and applications of technological and typological concepts and terms. In spite of these problems, it is possible to begin the process of synthesis, at least from a large scale.
Functionally, at this stage, the lithic assemblages well reflect the differences between the peripheral pastoral regions and the core agricultural zones in the presence of large numbers of sickle segments in the farming regions (the debate over sickles versus threshing teeth notwithstanding), and their absence or near absence in the deserts. The greater prevalence of hunting can also be seen in higher arrowhead percentages in the desert. Raw material variability is obvious in varying quantities of obsidian, but probably is also reflected in subtle differences in Canaanean blade technologies. Economic organization is reflected in degrees of production specialization and exchange of lithics, especially reflected in differences between the desert and sown. Cultural spheres are reflected in regional differences between types and technologies. Finally, chronological evolutionary change, including processes of innovation and diffusion are also evident.
From Thermal Flakes to Tabular Scrapers: New Investigations at ardh-Asswwan
Dr Mohammad B Tarawneh (Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan)
By the Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic period, specialized pastoral-nomadism had became the dominant way of life in the desert regions of the southern Levant, but it was almost absent from north-eastern Jordan and south-eastern Syria. This shift from the north-eastern steppe to the central-eastern and south-eastern steppe/desert may be because the marginal landscapes of Jordan were more suitable for a predominantly pastoral lifestyle, and that the increasing demand for raw materials and goods produced in the desert, particularly tabular scarpers, made exploiting these areas viable. The production of tabular scrapers became an integral part of pastoral nomads' trade networks and seasonal movements between different regions in the southern Levant and northern Arabia. New investigations in the eastern Bayir region, also called ardh-Asswwan (land of the flint), has proved, through carbon dating, that there are an increasing number of Late Neolithic- Early Chalcolithic sites in this area. Thermal flakes were the dominant tool types at these sites, while tabular scrapers in their early stages were fewer in number. Hunting seems not present in the daily life given the absence of arrowheads.
It is possible that tabular scrapers were developed from the retouched thermal flakes, particularly flakes such as the tabular ones with a cortical dorsal face and a convex ventral side; at the very least thermal flakes were a transitional type from bifacial knives. Two types of thermal flakes were categorised at eastern Bayir: the first is semi-circular in shape and very similar to tabular scrapers in their function; the second is a heavy duty tool because of its large size and the discontinuous retouch on one edge on most cases. The functionality of the tabular scrapers as a multi-functional knife created the need for different shapes of tabular scarpers instead of the semi-rounded shape of the thermal flakes, as well as the need for different sizes, and the availability of different raw materials. Finally, tabular scrapers developed from the late Neolithic until they reached their finest, thin shape, and this development may have at least partly taken place in the eastern desert of Jordan.
Burins on Canaanean Blades and Canaanean Blades with Impact blows from the Chlcolithic-Early Bronze Age site of Nahal Komem
Dr Jacob Vardi, Prof Isaac Gilead, and Dr Peter Fabian (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Canaanean blade industry blank and tool products are a well known phenomena of the 4th-3rd millennia BCE, lithic assemblages from the Levant. Used mostly as segmented sickle inserts, very little is known about their use for tasks other than as cutting implements. In the recent excavations that were conducted at the site of Nahal Komem (also known as Wadi Zeita, the site is chronologically divided to a late 5th millennia Ghassulian culture and to an Early Bronze Ib phases), over 300 Canaanean blade industry blanks and tools were discovered. During the study of the assemblage a group of several dozens of Canaanean blade tools that bear burin blows, or flat impact scars was recognized. In other few cases in impact scars were noticed in addition to burin blows. It is worth noting that burin spalls that are evidently the byproducts of the fabrication of burins on Canaanean blades are appear also in Nahal Komem.
The study of these tools and their spalls show that the burin blow scars and impact signs reflect a second use, on former retouched blades or sickle blade inserts. The specific tasks behind the fabrication of the burins as well as the mechanism that caused the creation of the impact signs on these tools are currently unknown.Our observations show that in most cases the fabrication of burin blows and the appearance of impact signs, are not related to retooling or rejuvenation activities.