The Exchange of Flint Tools in the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age

Abstract

Early Bronze Age (ca. 3600–2000 B.C.) lithic assemblages of the southern Levant have been thoroughly analyzed, both from the technological and typological viewpoints. Among the characteristic flint tools of this period are tabular scrapers and Canaanean (sickle) blades. While the former tool was in use during the previous Chalcolithic (Ghassulian-Beersheva cultures), Canaanean technology was an innovation of the Early Bronze communities, which spread over the second half of the fourth millennium and the entire third millennium B.C.Here the results of recent research are presented that examines the production relationships of these tools as commodities. Differentiation in the distribution networks of these artifacts will be offered. Our research indicates that each branch of production for tabular scrapers and Canaanean blades had a defined network of distribution sometimes associated with distribution from one center, the Canaanean blades had local or regional centers that distributed the blades in several stations and steps. While there is a difficulty in establishing the location of the tabular scraper workshops, it seems that Canaanean blade workshops were located in villages, or in the suburbs of the urban or administrative centers.

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