Limestone Wedges: ad hoc Quarrying Tools of the Kaizer Hill Quarry Site

ABSTRACT

Kaizer Hill is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A flint and limestone quarry site situated in central Israel. During systematic collection and excavation at the site, a large quantity of limestone wedges was recovered. This study reports the results of a detailed morphological, technological and functional attribute analysis conducted on these artifacts. The results indicate that these artifacts were indeed utilized for the expansion of natural cracks and fissures in the bedrock, with the use of forceful blows for their insertion. While some consistent morphological traits can be identified, there is a high degree of variability in most aspects of their morphology, and it seems that minimal effort and planning were invested in their production. Nevertheless, although the Kaizer Hill wedges apparently conform to the definition of ad hoc tools, they played a crucial role in the quarrying conducted at the site.

KEYWORDS:

• Wedges
• quarry
• quarrying fronts
• quarrying tools
• Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
• Israel

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for providing the means and conditions for field work and analyses. The 3D scanning was carried out with equipment purchased by means of a grant given by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel and the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche et de l’Innovation, France (2018). We thank Hadas Goldgeier for the production of Figure 1, Ruhama Bonfil for the production of Figure 2 and Noah Lichtinger for the production of Figures 11 and 12. Sue Gorodetsky edited the manuscript with her usual professionalism and dedication. The authors thank the editor of Lithic Technology and an anonymous reviewer for their most constructive comments, which improved our manuscript and made it much clearer to the readers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ira Novoselsky has received a BA degree in prehistoric Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Currently she works at Israel Antiquities Authority in the excavation and analysis of material from historic and prehistoric sites in Israel.

Leore Grosman is an associate professor in the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a prehistoric archaeologist, she explores the early history of our species focusing upon a critical period – the transition from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles. As the director of the Computational Archaeology Laboratory, she is involved in projects integrating particularly tools supplied by mathematics and computer sciences, to modern archaeological research. She is the director of the Terminal Paleolithic excavations at Hilazon Tachtit Cave and Nahal Ein-Gev II.

Gadi Herzlinger is a PhD student at the Institute of Archaeology and a member of the PhD honors program at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His research is focused on lithic analysis in various prehistoric periods, both using common methods and through the development and implementation of computerized analytical procedures. He was part of the expedition that surveyed and excavated Kizer Hill and contributed to the analysis of its material.

Naama Goren-Inbar is a professor emerita of the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research endeavors have focused on the Levantine prehistoric record and are concerned with increasing the understanding of hominin material culture and behavior. She conducted an extensive study of the earliest and numerous Lower Paleolithic occupations in the Levant revealed at the site of ‘Ubeidiya (Dead Sea Rift), which provided detailed evidence for the sortie of hominins “out of Africa”. Later, most of her research effort has been invested in the extensive study of the Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY) site, providing further insights into the reconstruction of the Pleistocene Mediterranean paleoclimate, environment, ecology, taphonomy, cognition, and human behavior. Her research approach has been problem-oriented and multidisciplinary. While most of her work is concerned with lithics, it is consistently aimed at better understanding of the minds of the artifact producers from the cognitive, technological, cultural, and environmental adaptation perspectives. She has applied this approach cross-culturally to include issues pertaining to the Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and more recently Neolithic cultures.

ORCID

Leore Grosman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6976-6202

Gadi Herzlinger http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6437-607X

Naama Goren-Inbar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6707-8676

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Archeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as part of undergraduate course requirements.