The function of Early Natufian grooved basalt artefacts from el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: Preliminary results of a use-wear analysis
Keywords:
shaft straighteners, el-Wad Terrace, Natufian, use-wear analysis, multi-functional tools, ground stone tools
Abstract
[Report]
Grooved items are usually regarded as tools used for modifying other implements made of bone, stone, plants or wood, whether referred to as shaft straighteners, smoothers, polishers or sharpening tools. They were also attributed to various symbolic meanings in Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and they were also associated with bead manufacturing process in the Neolithic. Grooved basalts found on Early Natufian (ca. 14,000 BP) living floors at el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel, were the subject of microscopic use-wear analysis. Here we present the preliminary results of the research, introducing our functional reconstruction based on experiments. The most outstanding result is that traces on the perimeters, attributed to shaping of the artefact, are different from the traces inside the groove which are related to the use of the artefact. We conclude that the groove is a part of the instrument, shaped before its use in order to work the abraded materials. Traces indicate that the shaping of the perimeters was done by abrasion against a very hard rock, probably using water to enhance the smoothing of the stone. Traces inside the groove indicate, as was previously assumed for these artefacts, that the groove was used as a shaft straightener. However, traces also indicate that the groove was used to abrade different types of materials which might not be related to the preparation of shafts including reeds, wood, and especially minerals such as ochre. Our preliminary results indicate the multi-functional nature of these items shedding light on their production, use and discard history.
References
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Dubreuil, L. 2002, Etude fonctionnelle des outils de broyage natoufiens: Nouvelles perspectives sur l’émergence de l’agriculture au Proche-Orient. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bordeaux I, Bordeaux, 469 p.
Dubreuil, L. 2004, Long-term trends in Natufian subsistence: A use-wear analysis of ground stone tools. Journal of Archaeological Science, 31(11): 1613-1629. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.04.003
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Dubreuil, L., & Grosman, L. 2009, Ochre and hide-working at a Natufian burial place. Antiquity, 83(322): 935-954. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00099269
Dubreuil, L., & Grosman, L. 2013, The life history of macrolithic tools at Hilazon Tachtit Cave. In: Natufian Foragers in the Levant: Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia, (Bar-Yosef O. & Valla F.R., Eds.), International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor: p. 527-543.
Dubreuil, L., & Savage, D. 2013, Ground stones: a synthesis of the use-wear approach. Journal of Archaeological Science, 48: 139-153. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.06.023
Eckmeier, E., Yeshurun, R., Weinstein-Evron, M., Mintz, E., & Boaretto, E. 2012, 14C dating of the Early Natufian at el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: methodology and materials characterization. Radiocarbon, 54(3-4): 823-836. doi:10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i3–4.16166
Edwards, P.C. 2013, Limestone artefacts. In: Wadi Hammeh 27: An Early Natufian Settlement at Pella in Jordan, (Edwards, P.C., Ed.), Brill, Leiden: p. 235-247.
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Eitam, D. 2008, Plant food in the Late Natufian: the oblong conical mortar as a case study. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 38: 133-151. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23386442
Garrod, D.A.E. 1957, The Natufian culture: the life and economy of a Mesolithic people in the Near East. Proceedings of the British Academy, 43: 211-227.
Garrod, D.A.E., & Bate, D.M.A. 1937, The Stone Age of Mount Carmel. Vol. I. Excavations at the Wadi Mughara. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 240 p.
Gopher, A., & Orrelle, E. 1996, An alternative interpretation for the material imagery of the Yarmoukian, a Neolithic culture of the sixth millennium BC in the southern Levant. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 6(2): 255-279. doi:10.1017/S0959774300001736
Hardy-Smith, T., & Edwards, P.C. 2004, The garbage crisis in prehistory: Artefact discard patterns at the Early Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27 and the origins of household refuse disposal strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 23(3): 253-289. doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2004.05.001
Hayden, B., Canuel, N., & Shanse, J. 2013, What was brewing in the Natufian? An archaeological assessment of brewing technology in the Epipaleolithic. Journal of Archaeological Method Theory, 20(1): 102-150. doi:10.1007/s10816-011-9127-y
Hermansen, B.D. 1997, Patterns of symbolism in the Neolithic, seen from Basta. Neo-Lithics, 2(97): 6.
Hole, F., Flannery, K.V., & Neely, J.A. 1969, Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain, an Early Village Sequence from Khuzistan, Iran. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 1, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 440 p.
Kaufman, D., Yeshurun, R., & Weinstein-Evron, M. 2015, The Natufian sequence of el-Wad Terrace: Seriating the lunates. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 45: 143-157
Nadel, D., Filin, S., Rosenberg, D., & Miller, V. 2015, Prehistoric bedrock features: recent advances in 3D characterization and geometrical analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science, 53: 331-344. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.10.029
Nadel, D., & Lengyel, G. 2009, Human-made bedrock holes (mortars and cupmarks) as a Late Natufian social phenomenon. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Euroasia, 37(2): 37-48. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2009.08.012
Nadel, D., & Rosenberg, D. 2010, New insights into Late Natufian bedrock features (mortars and cupmarks). Eurasian Prehistory, 7(1): 65-87.
Perrot, J. 1966, Le gisement Natufian de Mallaha (Eynan), Israël. L’Anthropologie, 70(5–6): 437-484.
Rosenberg, D. 2011, Development, Continuity and Change: The Stone Industries of the Early Ceramic Bearing Cultures of the Southern Levant. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Haifa, Haifa, 571 p.
Rosenberg, D. 2013, Not ‘just another brick in the wall?’ The symbolism of groundstone tools in Natufian and Early Neolithic Levantine constructions. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 23(2): 185-201. doi:10.1017/S095977431300022X
Rosenberg, D., Kaufman, D., Yeshurun, R., & Weinstein-Evron, M. 2012, The broken record: The Natufian groundstone assemblage from el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel) – Attributes and their interpretation. Journal of Eurasian Prehistory, 9(1-2): 93-128.
Rosenberg, D., & Nadel, D. 2011, On floor level: PPNA indoor cupmarks and their Natufian forerunners. In: The State of the Stone: Terminologies, Continuities and Contexts in Near Eastern Lithics. Proceedings of the 6th PPN Conference on Chipped and Ground Stone Artefacts in the Near East, Manchester, 3rd–5th March 2008, (Healy, E., Maeda, O., & Campbell, S., Eds.), Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment Vol. 13, Ex Oriente, Berlin: p. 99-108.
Rosenberg, D., & Nadel, D. 2014, The sounds of pounding: Boulder mortars and their significance to Natufian burial customs. Current Anthropology, 55(6): 784-812. doi:10.1086/679287
Samzun, A. 1994, Le mobilier en pierre. In: Le Gisement de Hatoula en Judée Occidentale, Israël, Mémoires et Travaux du Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem 8, (Lechevallier, M., & Ronen, A., Eds.), Association Paléorient, Paris: p. 193-226 (in French) (The ground-stone tool assemblage)
Savage, D. 2014, Arrows Before Agriculture? A Functional Study of Natufian and Neolithic Grooved Stones. Unpublished MA Thesis no. AAC1564003, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, 327 p.
Solecki, R.L., & Solecki, R.S. 1970, Grooved stones from Zawi Chemi Shanidar, a Protoneolithic site in northern Iraq. American Anthropologist, 72(4): 831-841. doi:10.1525/aa.1970.72.4.02a00080
Stekelis, M. 1972. The Yarmukian Culture of the Neolithic Period. Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 124 p.
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Published
31-Oct-2016
How to Cite
Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Rosenberg, D., Yeshurun, R., Kaufman, D., & Weinstein-Evron, M. (2016). The function of Early Natufian grooved basalt artefacts from el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: Preliminary results of a use-wear analysis. Journal of Lithic Studies, 3(3), 221-242. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v3i3.1508
Issue
Section
Presented at the 1st Meeting of the Association for Ground Stone Tools Research
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