Size Matters: The Role of Nodule Size in Assessing Lithic Transportation—The Case of the Mount Reihan Flint Extraction and Axe/Adze Workshop, Dishon Basin, Eastern Galilee, Israel

ABSTRACT

There has been much progress recently in reconstructing the transportation of lithic materials from quarry/extraction sites and workshops to occupation sites. The suggested “theoretical nodule,” “cortex ratio,” and “volume ratio” measures have proven useful, mainly when applied to cases in which relatively small initial nodules/cobbles were selected for knapping. However, these methods lose much of their relevance when dealing with the production of bifacials from large nodules. In this article, we present evidence from a newly discovered axe/adze workshop at Mount Reihan in the eastern Galilee, Israel, which boasts an almost complete chaîne opératoire of the production of Neolithic/Chalcolithic axes and adzes from large (mean weight 17.7 kg) flint nodules as a starting point. Measuring nodules, bifacial roughouts, and debitage enables us to propose a two-step method that is valid for the production of bifacials from large nodules: (1) weight of knapped waste is calculated as 80 per cent of the initial flint weight; (2) the 20 per cent weight that remains is divided between the rejected roughouts and the exported/transported items, following a ratio of 1 roughout: 2–3 exported tools.

KEYWORDS:

• Flint extraction
• lithic transportation
• Axe/Adze Workshop
• nodule size
• Neolithic/Chalcolithic
• Israel

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Professors Ran Barkai and Erez Ben-Yosef for their suggestions and comments, Myrna Pollak for her English editing, and Itamar Ben-ezra for the graphics. We thank Dr Tosabanta Padhan, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Meir Finkel is a PhD candidate at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University. His research is focused on the study of Lower and Middle Paleolithic and Neolithic/Chalcolithic flint extraction sites and workshops from the Galilee, Israel. Meir holds two previous PhD degrees, one in evolutionary biology and the other in political science.

Avi Gopher is Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Culture in Tel Aviv University. He studies the Late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave in collaboration with Prof. R. Barkai and is a member of a research team focusing on plant domestication in the Near East. He is also engaged in field and laboratory projects studying Pre-Pottery Neolithic and Pottery Neolithic sites and assemblages.