Indoor/Outdoor Flint Knapping and Minute Debitage Remains: The Evidence from the Ohaloii Submerged Camp (19.5 Ky, Jordan Valley)

Abstract

An analysis of 3o,6oo pieces of minute debitage (flint artifacts smaller than I cm) is presented. The remains were retrieved from brush hut floors and hearths exposed in a 19,500 year-old submerged camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. High-quality preservation of smallfinds, including organic remains, is evident. A Classification of the small flints is presented and incorporated in the analysis. The results suggest that there are in situ concentrations of minute debitage, coinciding with the distribution of flint cores, core trimming elements, cortical elements and bladelets. The finds indicate that, in some cases, post-depositional movement of artifacts was minimal, and that floor cleaning by sweeping was not common. It is possible to reconstruct a scenario in which two or three knappers were sitting on a floor in a semi-circle and flaking cores mar the entrante of the hut. This is the oldest example of its kind in the Near East. Furthermore, outdoor flint working was also common at the camp. Indeed, the minute debitage data, combined with the results ofother analyses, reflect very high similarities between studied knapping locales at the site. These, in turn, are interpreted as the remains of similar knapping episodes in terms of the number of artisans and/or the number of worked cores.