Flint procurement strategies in the Late Lower Palaeolithic recorded by in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be in Tabun and Qesem Caves (Israel)

Giovanni Verri; Ran Barkai; Avi Gopher; Michael Hass; Peter W. Kubik; Michael Paul; Abraham Ronen; Steve Weiner; Elisabetta Boaretto

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.09.001

Flint procurement strategies in the Late Lower Palaeolithic recorded by in situ produced cosmogenic ¹⁰Be in Tabun and Qesem Caves (Israel)

Giovanni Verri, Ran Barkai, Avi Gopher, Michael Hass, Peter W. Kubik, Michael Paul, Abraham Ronen, Steve Weiner, Elisabetta Boaretto

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

The in situ produced cosmogenic beryllium isotope, ¹⁰Be, in flint artifacts from different layers in prehistoric caves can provide information on flint procurement. The buildup of ¹⁰Be in a flint matrix is related to the exposure time of the flint to cosmic rays. Although this exposure history can be complex, the ¹⁰Be content of flint assemblages can show whether the raw material was obtained from shallow mining and/or surface collection as opposed to sediments two or more meters below the surface. Flint artifact assemblages from two Palaeolithic caves in Israel, Tabun and Qesem, were analyzed. In Tabun cave the flint artifacts from Lower Layer E (Acheulo-Yabrudian, around 400 000-200 000 yr) contain very small amounts of ¹⁰Be, which is consistent with flint procured from sediments two or more meters deep. Artifacts from above and below Tabun Lower Layer E show a more complex distribution, as do artifacts from all layers of Qesem cave (Acheulo-Yabrudian). This is probably due to the fact that they were surface collected and/or mined from shallow (less than 2 m) depths. We show here that artifact assemblages have different concentrations of ¹⁰Be, indicating different raw material procurement strategies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	207-213
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume	32
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2004.09.001
State	Published - Feb 2005
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project was funded by the Minerva Foundation and an Israel Science Foundation grant to S.W. S.W. holds the Dr. Walter and Dr. Trude Borchardt Professorial Chair in Structural Biology. S.W. also gratefully acknowledges the generous financial help from Mr. George Schwartzman. G.V. was a recipient of a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University. The Qesem Cave project is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (820/02), the Leakey Foundation and the Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.

Funding

This project was funded by the Minerva Foundation and an Israel Science Foundation grant to S.W. S.W. holds the Dr. Walter and Dr. Trude Borchardt Professorial Chair in Structural Biology. S.W. also gratefully acknowledges the generous financial help from Mr. George Schwartzman. G.V. was a recipient of a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University. The Qesem Cave project is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (820/02), the Leakey Foundation and the Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.

Funders	Funder number
Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation
Leakey Foundation
Minerva Foundation
Hebrew University of Jerusalem	820/02
Israel Science Foundation

Keywords

Acheulo-Yabrudian
Be
Cosmogenic isotopes
Flint mining
Lower Palaeolithic

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jas.2004.09.001

Cite this

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title = "Flint procurement strategies in the Late Lower Palaeolithic recorded by in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be in Tabun and Qesem Caves (Israel)",

abstract = "The in situ produced cosmogenic beryllium isotope, 10Be, in flint artifacts from different layers in prehistoric caves can provide information on flint procurement. The buildup of 10Be in a flint matrix is related to the exposure time of the flint to cosmic rays. Although this exposure history can be complex, the 10Be content of flint assemblages can show whether the raw material was obtained from shallow mining and/or surface collection as opposed to sediments two or more meters below the surface. Flint artifact assemblages from two Palaeolithic caves in Israel, Tabun and Qesem, were analyzed. In Tabun cave the flint artifacts from Lower Layer E (Acheulo-Yabrudian, around 400 000-200 000 yr) contain very small amounts of 10Be, which is consistent with flint procured from sediments two or more meters deep. Artifacts from above and below Tabun Lower Layer E show a more complex distribution, as do artifacts from all layers of Qesem cave (Acheulo-Yabrudian). This is probably due to the fact that they were surface collected and/or mined from shallow (less than 2 m) depths. We show here that artifact assemblages have different concentrations of 10Be, indicating different raw material procurement strategies.",

keywords = "Acheulo-Yabrudian, Be, Cosmogenic isotopes, Flint mining, Lower Palaeolithic",

author = "Giovanni Verri and Ran Barkai and Avi Gopher and Michael Hass and Kubik, {Peter W.} and Michael Paul and Abraham Ronen and Steve Weiner and Elisabetta Boaretto",

note = "Funding Information: This project was funded by the Minerva Foundation and an Israel Science Foundation grant to S.W. S.W. holds the Dr. Walter and Dr. Trude Borchardt Professorial Chair in Structural Biology. S.W. also gratefully acknowledges the generous financial help from Mr. George Schwartzman. G.V. was a recipient of a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University. The Qesem Cave project is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (820/02), the Leakey Foundation and the Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.",

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AU - Barkai, Ran

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AU - Hass, Michael

AU - Kubik, Peter W.

AU - Paul, Michael

AU - Ronen, Abraham

AU - Weiner, Steve

AU - Boaretto, Elisabetta

N1 - Funding Information: This project was funded by the Minerva Foundation and an Israel Science Foundation grant to S.W. S.W. holds the Dr. Walter and Dr. Trude Borchardt Professorial Chair in Structural Biology. S.W. also gratefully acknowledges the generous financial help from Mr. George Schwartzman. G.V. was a recipient of a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University. The Qesem Cave project is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (820/02), the Leakey Foundation and the Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.

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