Archaeologists have unearthed a remarkably advanced flint blade manufacturing workshop, dating back approximately 5,500 years, during an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation in Kiryat Gat.
This discovery, made prior to the construction of the new Carmei Gat neighborhood, marks the first time such a specialized production site has been found in southern Israel.
The findings provide compelling evidence of a sophisticated society with a complex social and economic structure at the very beginning of the Early Bronze Age. The excavation revealed not only numerous long flint blades but also, in a rare occurrence, the large stone cores used to produce them.
“This is the first time such a workshop has been discovered in southern Israel,” stated Dr. Martin David Pasternak, Shira Lifshitz, and Dr. Nathan Ben-Ari, the excavation directors for the IAA.
They added that while evidence of the Canaanite blade industry exists in central and northern Israel, workshops for their systematic production are rarely found.
This discovery “deepens the understanding of both the beginnings of urbanization and of professional specialization in the Land of Israel – phenomena that led to the establishment of large settlements and that catalyzed the creation of new social structures.”
IAA prehistorians Dr. Jacob Vardi and Dudu Biton emphasized the highly specialized nature of the industry.
“An advanced industry was revealed at the site, requiring an extremely high level of expertise. Only exceptional individuals knew how to produce the Canaanite blades,” they noted.
This serves as “clear evidence that already at the onset of the Bronze Age, the local society here was organized and complex and had professional specialization.”
The archaeological site, Nahal Qomem (also known as Gat-Govrin, Zeita), was continuously settled for hundreds of years, spanning from the Chalcolithic period through to the Early Bronze Age.
The excavation indicates that the settlement covered a much larger area than previously estimated, over half a kilometer, and included hundreds of underground pits. These pits, some lined with mud bricks, served diverse purposes, including storage, dwellings, craft production, and cultic or social rituals.
The production technology was highly advanced
The most impressive artifacts found were the large flint cores, from which exceptionally sharp, uniformly shaped blades were crafted. These blades were primarily used as knives for cutting and butchering, as well as harvesting tools like sickle blades.
The production technology was highly advanced, incorporating the use of a “kind of crane” to apply precise pressure to the flint.
Dr. Vardi highlighted the sophistication of this industry, noting that “the waste fragments, the debitage, were not scattered outside the site – perhaps to better protect and preserve the professional knowledge within the group of experts.”
He concluded, “Today, we understand that this site served as a center from which Canaanite blades were distributed across broad regions in the Levant.”
These rare finds are being publicly displayed for the first time this summer as part of tours at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.