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.

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