Abstract:

The present study investigates the degree of technological variability in sickle blade production at the end of the Epi-Palaeolithic during the important transition in subsistence strategy in the Southern Levant. Sickle blades are significant during this subsistence change, since they point to an economic reliance on large-grain grasses (cereals). They become one of the main tool classes in the new toolkit during the subsequent Neolithic period. Our goal is to provide additional information on the Late Natufian toolkit and to explore lithic variability (beyond the traditional research on microliths). Detailed analysis was conducted on the sickle blade assemblages retrieved from four Late Natufian sites (ranging from 11,700 to 10,000 cal. BC): Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Nahal Ein Gev II, Fazael IV, Salibiya I. Our results show that the Nahal Ein Gev II assemblage displays a distinctive component of robust and heavily retouched sickle blades in comparison to the other assemblages we examined. It seems that in the Jordan Valley at ca 10,500–10,000 cal. BC, the sickle blade blanks of this chronological phase can be distinguished from those that came before or shortly after. In general, the technological observations on sickle blades are in agreement with previous claims that the ‘Natufian’ is an aggregation of several groups, each having a slightly different material culture.