The function of Early Natufian grooved basalt artefacts from el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: Preliminary results of a use-wear analysis

Authors

  • Iris Groman-Yaroslavski University of Haifa
  • Danny Rosenberg University of Haifa
  • Reuven Yeshurun University of Haifa
  • Daniel Kaufman University of Haifa
  • Mina Weinstein-Evron University of Haifa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v3i3.1508

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.

Author Biographies

  • Iris Groman-Yaroslavski, University of Haifa
    The Use-Wear Analysis Laboratory
    The Zinman Institute of Archaeology
    University of Haifa
    Haifa
    Israel
  • Danny Rosenberg, University of Haifa
    Laboratory for Ground Stone Tools Research
    The Zinman Institute of Archaeology
    University of Haifa
    Haifa
    Israel
  • Reuven Yeshurun, University of Haifa
    The Zinman Institute of Archaeology
    University of Haifa
    Haifa
    Israel
  • Daniel Kaufman, University of Haifa
    The Zinman Institute of Archaeology
    University of Haifa
    Haifa
    Israel
  • Mina Weinstein-Evron, University of Haifa
    The Zinman Institute of Archaeology
    University of Haifa
    Haifa
    Israel

References

Adams, J.L. 2002, Ground Stone Analysis. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 320 p.

Adams, J.L. 2008, Beyond the broken. In: New Approaches to Old Stones, (Rowan, Y. and Ebeling, J., Eds.), Equinox Publishing Ltd, London: p. 213-229.

Adams, J.L., Delgado, S., Dubreuil, L., Hamon, C., Plisson, H., & Risch, R. 2009, Functional analysis of macro-lithic artefacts: a focus on working surfaces. In: Non-Flint Raw Material Use in Prehistory: Old Prejudices and New Directions, (Sternke, F., Eigeland, L. & Costa, L.J., Eds.), BAR International Series Vol. 1939, Archaeopress, Oxford: p. 43-66.

Bar-Yosef, O. 1983, The Natufian in the southern Levant. In: The Hilly Flanks and Beyond, (Young Jr., T.C., Smith, P.E.L. and Mortensen, P., Eds.), Oriental Institute, Chicago: p. 1-42.

Bar‐Yosef, O. 1998. The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 6(5): 159-177.‏ doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7

de Beaune, S.A. 1993, Nonflint tools of the Early Upper Paleolithic. In: Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, (Knecht, H., Pike-Tay, A. & White, E., Eds.), Crc Press, Ann Arbor: p. 163-191.

Belfer-Cohen, A. 1988, The Natufian Settlement at Hayonim Cave – A Hunter-Gatherer Band on the Threshold of Agriculture. Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem. 603 p.

Belfer-Cohen, A. 1991, The Natufian in the Levant. Annual Review of Anthropology, 20: 167-186. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.20.100191.001123

Belfer-Cohen, A., & Bar-Yosef, O. 1981, The Aurignacian at Hayonim Cave. Paléorient, 7(2): 19-42. doi:10.3406/paleo.1981.4296

Belfer-Cohen, A., & Bar-Yosef, O. 2002, Early sedentism in the Near East. A bumpy ride to village life. In: Life in Neolithic Farming Communities. Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation (Kuijt, I. Ed.), Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York: p. 19-38. doi:10.1007/b110503

Cauvin, J. 2000, The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 288 p.

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

Dubreuil, L. 2008, Mortar versus grinding-slabs and the neolithization process in the Near East. In: “Prehistoric Technology” 40 Years Later: Functional Studies and the Russian Legacy, (Longo, L. & Skakun, N., Eds.), Museo Civico di Verona, and Universita degli Studi di Verona, Verona: p. 169-177.

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.

Edwards, P.C., & Webb, J. 2013, The basaltic artefacts and their origin. In: Wadi Hammeh 27: An Early Natufian settlement at Pella in Jordan, (Edwards, P.C., Ed.), Brill, Leiden: p. 205-233.

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.

Valla, F.R. 1995, The first settled societies - Natufian (12,500-10,200 BP). In: The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, (Levy, T.E., Ed.), Leicester University Press, London: p. 170-187.

Valla, F.R. 2009, Une énigme Natoufienne: Les mortiers enterrés. In: De Méditerranée et D'Ailleurs. Mélanges Offerts à Jean Guilaine, (Fabre, D., Ed.). Archives d'Écologie Préhistorique, Toulouse: p. 752-760. (in French) (A Natufian enigma: the buried mortars)

Valla, F.R. 2012, Le matériel en pierre. In: Les Fouilles de la Terrasse d’Hayonim (Israël) 1980–1981 et 1985–1989, (Valla, F.R., Ed.). Mémoires et Travaux du Centre de Recherche Français à Jerusalem Vol. 10, De Boccard, Paris: p. 299-320. (in French) (The ground-stone tool assemblage)

Valla, F.R., Bar-Yosef, O., Smith, P., Tchernov, E., & Desse, J. 1986, Un nouveau sondage sur la terrasse d'El Ouad, Israel. Paléorient, 12(1): 21-38. (in French) (A new survey at el-Wad Terrace, Israel) doi:10.3406/paleo.1986.4395

Vered, A. 2013, Grooved stones in the southern Levant: Typology, function and chronology. In: Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East, (Borrell, F., Ibáñez, J.J., & Molist, M., Eds.), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona: p. 435-447.

Voigt, M.M. 1983, Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran: The Neolithic Settlement. University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, 528 p.

Weinstein-Evron, M. 1998, Early Natufian el-Wad Revisited. Études et Recherches Archéologiques de l’Université de Liège, ERAUL Vol. 77, Service de Préhistoire, Université de Liège, Liège, 255 p.

Weinstein-Evron, M. 2009, Archaeology in the Archives: Unveiling the Natufian Culture of Mount Carmel. ASPR Monograph Series Vol. 7, Brill, Boston, 148 p.

Weinstein-Evron, M., .Lang, B., & Ilani, S. 1999, Natufian trade/exchange in basalt implements: Evidence from northern Israel. Archaeometry, 41(2): 267-273. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.1999.tb00982.x

Weinstein-Evron, M., Lang, B., Ilani, S., Steinitz, G., & Kaufman, D. 1995, K/AR dating as a means of sourcing Levantine Epi-Paleolithic basalt implements. Archaeometry, 37(1): 37-40. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.1995.tb00725.x

Weinstein-Evron, M., Kaufman, D., Bachrach, N., Bar-Oz, G., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E., Chaim, S., Druck, D., Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Hershkovitz, I., Liber, N., Rosenberg, D., Tsatskin, A., & Weissbrod, L. 2007, After 70 years: new excavations at the el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 37: 37-134.

Weinstein-Evron, M., Kaufman, D., & Bird-David, N. 2001, Rolling stones: basalt implements as evidence for trade/exchange in the Levantine Epi-Palaeolithic. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 31: 25-42. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23380245

Weinstein-Evron, M., Kaufman, D. & Yeshurun, R. 2013, Spatial organization of Natufian el-Wad through time: combining the results of past and present excavations. 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. 88-106.

Weinstein-Evron, M., Yeshurun, R., Kaufman, D., Boaretto, E., & Eckmeier, E. 2012, New radiocarbon dates for the Early Natufian of el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel. Radiocarbon, 54(3-4): 813-822. doi:10.3406/paleo.1991.4542

Weissbrod, L., Bar-Oz, G., Yeshurun, R., & Weinstein-Evron,M. 2012, Beyond fast and slow: The mole rat Spalax ehrenbergi (Order Rodentia) as a test case for subsistence intensification of complex Natufian foragers in southwest Asia. Quaternary International, 264: 4-16. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.05.021

Wilke, P.J., & Quintero, L.A. 2009, Getting it straight: shaft-straighteners in a grooved-stone world. In: Modesty and Patience: Archaeological Studies and Memories in Honour of Nabil Qadi “Abu Salim”, (Qadi, N., Gebel, H.G., Abdel-Kafi, Z., Kafafi, O. Al-Ghul, & Yarmūk, J., Eds.), Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan: p. 1-5.

Wright, K.I. 1991, The origins and the development of ground-stone assemblages in Late Pleistocene southwest Asia. Paléorient, 17(1): 19-45. doi:10.3406/paleo.1991.4537

Wright, K.I. 1994, Ground-stone tools and hunter-gatherer subsistence in southwest Asia: Implication for the transition to farming. American Antiquity, 59(2): 238-263. doi:10.2307/281929

Wright, K.I., Critchley, P., & Garrard, A. 2008, Stone bead technologies and early craft specialization: Insights from two Neolithic sites in eastern Jordan. Levant, 40(2): 131-165. doi:10.1179/175638008X348016

Yeshurun, R., Bar-Oz, G., Kaufman, D., & Weinstein-Evron, M. 2013, Domestic refuse maintenance in the Natufian: Faunal evidence from el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel. In: Natufian Foragers in the Levant: Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia, (Bar-Yosef, O., & Valla, F.R., Eds.), International Monographs in Prehistory. Archaeological Series Vol. 19, Ann Arbor: p. 118-138.

Yeshurun, R., Bar-Oz, G., Kaufman, D., & Weinstein-Evron, M. 2014a, Purpose, permanence and perception of 14,000-year-old architecture: Contextual taphonomy of food refuse. Current Anthropology, 55: 591-618. doi:10.1086/678275

Yeshurun, R., Bar-Oz, G., & Weinstein-Evron, M. 2014b, Intensification and sedentism in the Terminal Pleistocene Natufian sequence of el-Wad Terrace (Israel). Journal of Human Evolution, 70: 16-35. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.02.011

Downloads

Published

31-Oct-2016

Issue

Section

Presented at the 1st Meeting of the Association for Ground Stone Tools Research

How to Cite

The function of Early Natufian grooved basalt artefacts from el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: Preliminary results of a use-wear analysis. (2016). Journal of Lithic Studies, 3(3), 221-242. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v3i3.1508