The Heat Treatment of Flint in the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site of Yiftahel (Lower Galilee, Israel) and Its Social Interpretation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent examination of the lithic collection from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (MPPNB) site of Yiftahel (10,100-9,250 BP cal.) has revealed a relatively large number of flint artifacts showing traces of intentional heating. Heat treatment of siliceous stones is a worldwide phenomenon that was mainly used during the initial stages of chaîne opértoire for the improvement of blank detachment process. Nevertheless, visual observations of the assemblage from Yiftahel supplemented by physical tests indicate that the heat treatment was performed during the later stages of reduction sequence and was mainly present on blades, before their transformation into tools. Careful and intentional annealing of this type of blanks probably allowed better control over the heat treating process and more successful propagation of pressure retouch during the final stages of tool fashioning. In some cases, heat treating also affected the color of the item making it visually more attractive. The smooth and aesthetic appearance of pressure retouch on the one hand and the appearance of "eye-catching colors" of the blanks on the other, perhaps increased the economic value of finished tools and influenced their spread within local exchange trade networks and perhaps beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23966