The edges of stone tools have significant technological and functional implications. The nature of these edges–their sharpness, whether they are concave or convex, and their asymmetry–reflect how they were made and how they could be used. Similarly, blunt portions of a tool’s perimeter hint at how they could have been grasped or hafted and in which directions force could be applied. However, due to the difficulty in accurately measuring the complex 3D geometry of tool edges with traditional methods, their attributes are often overlooked. When they are analyzed, they have traditionally been assessed with visual qualitative categories or unreliable physical measurements. We introduce new computational 3D methods for automatically and repeatably measuring key attributes of stone tool edges. These methods allow us to automatically identify the 3D perimeter of tools, segment this perimeter according to changes in edge angles, and measure these discrete edge segments with a range of metrics. We test this new computational toolkit on a large sample of 3D models of handaxes from the later Acheulean of the southern Levant. Despite these handaxes being otherwise technologically and morphologically similar, we find marked differences in the amount of knapped outline, edge angle, and the concavity of their edges. We find many handaxes possess blunt portions of perimeter, suitable for grasping, and some handaxes even possess more than one discrete sharp edge. Among our sample, sites with longer occupations and more diverse toolkits possessed handaxes with more diverse edges. Above all, this paper offers new methods for computing the complex 3D geometry of stone tool edges that could be applied to any number of artifact types. These methods are fully automated, allowing the analysis and visualization of entire assemblages. 

Traditionally, rock engravings were studied through their visual characteristics. They have been analyzed with comparative and interpretative methodologies of iconography and iconology. However, there has been a recent shift towards identifying production processes, allowing reconstruction of operational characteristics through various methods. Nevertheless, the studies of the technological aspects typically focus on the operational and the mechanical, often omitting the visuality of the outcome. In the current paper, we are using ArchCUT3-D software for computational analysis of 3-D data acquired from various rock engravings located in Timna Park, southern Israel. We show how micro-morphological evidence, extracted from the engraved lines, can decode technical trends and variabilities in a technique’s particular implementation. Then, we conduct a focused examination of one group of engraved figures in order to establish a link between execution techniques and visual considerations. Based on our results and the following discussion, we suggest the term Techné to indicate the choice of technique that goes beyond the instrumental or purely operative perspectives. We highlight the intentional choice, which designs the visual rhetoric of the engraved marks and suggests cultural concepts that contrived the procedural processes. 

umming up the data deriving from the Natufian burials at Hayonim Cave which incorporates information pertaining to the last grave uncovered on site (Grave XVII), the paper endeavours to understand the role of burials within the evolving Natufian society at large. It seems that certain sites—Hayonim Cave being a case in point—served as special localities, used by a particular group as a burial ground all through the Natufian time-span (i.e. for more than 3000 years). Members of that group returned to the cave again and again in order to bury their dead, being aware of the location of the preceding graves, apparently retaining a long-term memory of their burial practices. At the same time, at least some burials provide evidence for inter-group ties, as evident through particular similarities between certain burials in two distinct Natufian sites, Hayonim Cave and Eynan (‘Ain Mallaha). Clearly, retention of mortuary practices played a significant role in consolidating and preserving social cohesion in the Natufian society.

Spheroids are one of the least understood lithic items yet are one of the most enduring, spanning from the Oldowan to the Middle Palaeolithic. Why and how they were made remains relatively unknown. Here we seek to address whether they were the unintentional by-product of a percussive task or were intentionally knapped, and if so, were there any goals to their manufacture? We apply novel 3D analysis methods, including spherical harmonics and surface curvature, on 150 limestone spheroids from ‘Ubeidiya to bring a new perspective to these enigmatic artefacts. We reconstruct the spheroid reduction sequence based on trends in their scars and geometry. We find that the spheroid makers at ‘Ubeidiya followed what appears to be a premeditated and formal reduction strategy. During this reduction, the spheroids do not become smoother, but they become markedly more spherical. They approach an ideal sphere, a feat that likely required a mental template and skilful knapping. Acheulean bifaces are currently thought to represent the earliest evidence of hominins imposing a premeditated, symmetrical shape on stone. With evidence of spheroids occurring before the Acheulean, the intentional production of a sphere-like object represents earlier evidence of hominins desiring and achieving intentional geometry and symmetry.

Ancient rock engravings evoke the interest of archeologists and art historians as an important remnant of human cultures. Traditionally, engraved images are studied based on iconography, iconology, and stylistic characteristics, with little emphasis on execution technology.
In contrast, the research method presented in this study strives to characterize the techniques adopted for making rock engravings in ancient times, with technological variations considered as indicators of the engraver’s production process. 3-D scans of two ancient engravings and contemporary graffiti were obtained from Site 25 in Timna Park, Southern Israel. The models were analyzed with ArchCUT3-D, a software specifically developed to precisely evaluate the 3-D micromorphological characteristics of the incisions making up the engraving. The software analyzes the surface micromorphology by extracting 3-D slices of the incisions using an accurate and repeatable method. Our results indicate that different incisions were executed by remarkably distinct techniques of stroking the rock surface with a sharp tool. The identification of discriminant characteristics enabled us to demonstrate the
particularities of the engraving operations, such as ergonomic conditions and the level of consistency of the engraving gesture. ArchCUT3-D thus provides a computational method for incision technique recognition through micromorphology specifications, and the reconstruction of engraving gestures and individual production procedures.

The nature of lithic morphological variability during the Acheulean is a much-debated topic, especially in the late Acheulean of the Levant. To explore this issue, we present a 3D analysis of 260 handaxes from Jaljulia, a recently discovered late Acheulean site dated to ca. 500–300/200 ka. We employ a comprehensive suite of 3D methods aimed at reconstructing the technological and morphological choices enacted by the Jaljulia knappers. These methods include the precise calculation of orthogonal measurements, center of mass, surface area, edge length, and geometric morphometrics, as well as new metrics for quantifying handaxe outlines and distribution of mass. Scar density was used to reconstruct the handaxe reduction strategies employed at the site.

Our analyses reveal that the Jaljulia handaxes are diverse in shape suggesting that they were made following a flexible reduction sequence involving an expedient selection of initial nodules of varying sizes. This reduction strategy was geared toward improving the refinement and outline quality of the handaxes, but not imposing any shape constraints. The expediency and relative crudeness of the handaxes from such a late Acheulean site belie the commonly held perception that handaxes improve through time during the Acheulean. This is true on an intra-site scale also, with the oldest excavation area containing the most refined and smooth-edged handaxes. Finally, we consider how this newfound morphological flexibility and expediency of nodule selection fit within the complex lithic variability occurring in the terminal phase of the Acheulean.

The study of artifacts is fundamental to archaeological research. The features of individual artifacts are recorded, analyzed, and compared within and between contextual assemblages. Here we present and make available for academic-use Artifact3-D, a new software package comprised of a suite of analysis and documentation procedures for archaeological artifacts. We introduce it here, alongside real archaeological case studies to demonstrate its utility. Artifact3-D equips its users with a range of computational functions for accurate measurements, including orthogonal distances, surface area, volume, CoM, edge angles, asymmetry, and scar attributes. Metrics and figures for each of these measurements are easily exported for the purposes of further analysis and illustration. We test these functions on a range of real archaeological case studies pertaining to tool functionality, technological organization, manufacturing traditions, knapping techniques, and knapper skill. Here we focus on lithic artifacts, but the Artifact3-D software can be used on any artifact type to address the needs of modern archaeology. Computational methods are increasingly becoming entwined in the excavation, documentation, analysis, database creation, and publication of archaeological research. Artifact3-D offers functions to address every stage of this workflow. It equips the user with the requisite toolkit for archaeological research that is accurate, objective, repeatable and efficient. This program will help archaeological research deal with the abundant material found during excavations and will open new horizons in research trajectories.

The research of the Kaizer Hill site (the Hilltop and its Terraces), recognized as a Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) quarry site, involved studies of the rock damage associated with the quarrying activities as well as of the recovered material remains, mostly chipped stone artifacts. We present here the results of our on-site explorations (excavations, surveys and surface-collections), focusing on the findings deriving from the Terraces. Diverse rock damage patterns were identified and described, portraying systematic rock mass-exploitation through quarrying fronts, natural rock joints and fissures enlargement, drilling and chiseling. There are multiple indications that the local bedrock (Bi’na Formation, Turonian) comprising flint and limestone was quarried under a systematic quality evaluation, leaving residual flint unsuitable for exploitation. Of interest to note that nearly all of the flint artifacts excavated and collected on the Terraces were made on raw material transported from the Hilltop (Mishash Formation, Campanian), knapped in-situ, on the quarried rock surfaces of the slopes. The flint tools bear witness to intensive use involving mainly boring and drilling. The dominant tool type is the flint axe for which a variety of waste products related to its production were found in-situ, enabling the reconstruction of axe reduction sequence. Similar axes and waste products were found in many PPN sites indicating that there was a common, widely-used scheme of making flint axes during the PPN. Interestingly, besides the flint waste, there were also limestone waste products typical of the last shaping and thinning stages of axe production, indicating that limestone axes were shaped technologically similar to the flint ones, contrary to what has been assumed before. Rare findings, such as obsidian pieces, originating from much further a-field indicate ties with other PPN communities, near and/or far. Overall, this study provides unique and novel insights on Levantine PPN lifeways.

The continued and consistent presence of cemeteries observed in the Levantine Natufian (ca. 15,000–11,600 years cal BP) relates most probably to the fact that the Natufians were the first local society to adopt a sedentary existence, thus becoming partial to a plethora of changes and innovations that such a transformation implies. To enable people to share their living space and daily life with other non-kin group members for long spells of time, there was an urgent need for new regulatory cultural mechanisms and it is a given that funerary customs portray social aspects of the group involved. The Natufians practiced interment of the dead to an extent never known before, yet most of the studies pertaining to those burials furnish basic descriptions while the general socio-cultural context of the burials, and the relationship between the community`s living‑members and the dead has received less attention. As a rule, the burials were commonly treated within a clear dichotomy between living persons residing in the settlement and the dead. The latter were conceived as separated from the former, buried in cemeteries either in dedicated sites or in separate areas within the living settlement. The present study explores the behavioural and ideational aspects reflected in the Natufian burials, using as a case‑study the pit burials unearthed at the cemetery site of Hilazon Tachtit cave. Our findings indicate the existence of a complex procedure of accommodating the dead within the fabric of the Natufian social concepts.

A methodology for identifying prehistoric local learning communities is proposed. We wish to test possible relationships among communities based on continuity and variability in lithic reduction sequence technological traits with different visibility and malleability. Quantitative features reflecting different technological traits are measured on 3-D models of flint cores in different scales: the ratio between core thickness and reduction surface width, the angle between subsequent bands of production blank scars to the relative striking platform, and the average curvature of the ridge between each blank scar striking platform pair. Continuity and variability in these features are used to establish the relations among lithic assemblages on different hierarchical levels: local learning communities and geographically widespread cultural lineages. The Late Upper Palaeolithic and the Epipalaeolithic of the Southern Levant (ca. 27,000– 15,000 cal BP) provide an opportunity to test our method. A progressive increase in territoriality is hypothesized throughout this timespan, yet the precise timing and modes of this phenomenon need to be defined. The present study analyzes six core assemblages attributed to different cultural entities, representing chronologically separated occupations of the Ein Gev area and the coastal Sharon Plain. Continuity in technological traits between the Atlitian (ca. 27,000–26,000 cal BP) and Nizzanan (ca. 20,000–18,500 cal BP) occupations of the Ein Gev area suggests that the same learning community repeatedly settled there during a long time span. Two geographically separate learning communities were defined in the study areas within the Kebaran cultural entity (ca. 24,000–18,000 cal BP); the group occupying the Ein Gev area possibly continued to settle there during the Geometric Kebaran (ca. 18,000–15,000 cal BP). Continuity in more conservative traits of the reduction sequence allows to tie these two communities to the same cultural lineage. The ability to track prehistoric learning communities based on quantitative features helps increase the objectivity and the resolution in the reconstruction of past cultural dynamics.

In the Levant, the Epipalaeolithic is a long sequence of cultural entities dated between ca. 24,000 to 11,500 cal BP. Different Epipalaeolithic entities are mainly defined based on chronological and geographical patterns in the produced types of microliths. However, typological variability provides limited information on the dynamics of the local learning communities through time. The present study wishes to test whether the analysis of the microlith manufacturing process can help track the movement of people and ideas beyond the observed variability in microlith types, providing a novel insight on the population dynamics. The study focuses on the area of Ein Gev, where three different Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic cultural entities (Kebaran, Nizzanan, and Geometric Kebaran) were recorded respectively in three sites (Ein Gev I, III, and IV). We conducted an attribute analysis of cores and production blanks. Our results were discussed in light of a theoretical framework for the transmission of typological and technological traits among prehistoric populations. It suggests that, in a geographically limited area, continuity of technological traits among assemblages attributed to different cultural entities can be associated with continuity in the population. The analysis enabled tracking the continuity between the local Kebaran and Geometric Kebaran manufacturing traditions. In contrast, the Nizzanan occupation of the area presents technological traits that may reflect a different manufacturing tradition. It is suggested that the possible increase in territoriality of local groups can be considered among the factors that triggered, during the Natufian, the onset of sedentism.

This paper investigates aquatic resource exploitation at the Late Natufian site (ca. 12,000 cal. BP) of Nahal Ein Gev II located 2 km east of the Sea of Galilee. Aquatic game, here fish and waterfowl, were an important component of the diverse small game resources that became important in the Late Epipaleolithic in Southwest Asia. We characterize local adaptations to the aquatic habitat and their economic and social implications at Nahal Ein Gev II. Taxonomic abundance and diversity, body-part representation, and fish body-size were investigated to evaluate the contribution of aquatic resources to human diets and butchery and transport strategies. Our results show that the residents of Nahal Ein Gev II were highly selective of the aquatic resources they captured and transported home. The hunters maximized foraging efficiency by nearly exclusively choosing the largest bodied species of fish and waterfowl and processing their carcasses to maximize meat utility before transporting them back to the site. The selectivity of these human foragers enables us to reconstruct rare details about the organization of forays for aquatic resources. When combined with evidence from other material classes from Nahal Ein Gev II and other sites, the results suggest that aquatic resource exploitation is only one of several specialized activities practiced at Nahal Ein Gev II. These along with other archaeological evidence provide evidence of task diversification that foreshadows the emergence of a more complex division of labor to come in the succeeding Neolithic period.

Ceramic analysis has been concerned with categorizing types according to vessel shape and size for describing a given material culture at a particular time. This analysis’ long tradition has enabled archaeologists to define cultural units across time. However, going into the analysis of sub-typological variations is rarely done, although their meanings bear significant consequences on the understanding of ties between individuals and social units. This study, aiming to assess whether it is possible to identify social signatures, focuses on a single archaeological ceramic type. For this propose, we selected a corpus of 235 storage jars from two distinct periods: storage jars from the Intermediate Bronze Age (the 25^th -20^th century BCE); and the Oval Storage Jar type (hereafter: OSJ) from the Iron Age II (the late 9^th–early 6^th century BCE). The vessels selected were 3-D scanned to extract accurate geometric parameters and analyzed through an advanced shape analysis. The study results show that integrating computational and objective analysis methods, focusing on the “minute variation” within a single ceramic type, yields substantial insights regarding the relationship between variability and social units. In addition to the methodological guidelines and the suggested “work protocol” for further studies, the results shed light on the social organization of the Intermediate Bronze Age and the Iron Age II in Southern Levant.

For more than 10,000 years between the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum and the beginning of the Holocene, people repeatedly returned to the same spot on the southern edge of Paleolake Hula in the Upper Jordan Valley to fish, hunt and exploit other aquatic or semi-aquatic resources at the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat. Preliminary data from the site reveal intermittent occupation of this locale by small groups of hunter-gatherers who engaged in short-term, task-specific activities when lake levels dropped and exposed the site. The unique waterlogged conditions at Jordan River Dureijat capture an unusually well-preserved record of human subsistence and other activities, as well as local environmental conditions across much of the Epipaleolithic. Here we report the results of the first four seasons of excavation and interpret the understudied logistical activities of Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers who we know better from their more sedentary camps.

This study explores the effects of the copying error process on material culture. The goal is to assess whether the morphometric variability of standardized vessels, generated by copying errors, can reveal both collective and individual signatures. In this perspective, we collected a corpus of 320 present-day standardized water jars, made by 23 Indian expert potters belonging to two endogamous communities distributed between eight villages. The vessels are analyzed through advanced shape analysis of ceramic vessels. The issue is to assess whether morphometric variability is observable at the ‘community,’ the ‘village,’ and the ‘individual’ scales. The results show a clear separation between the two endogamous communities, even when barely visible by the naked eye. Furthermore, village-level trends can be obtained, especially when village productions are associated with distinct learning networks. Identifying individual signatures within standardized production made by multiple potters belonging to the same learning network remains challenging.

An engraved stone plaque found at the Late Natufian site Nahal Ein Gev II (ca 12,000 years ago) provides an inductive case study to investigate stylistic change in the context of the Levantine Epipaleolithic-Neolithic cultural transformations. The engraved stone is compared to other artworks from close to farther contexts, following the comparative approach of art-research, and the ‘style sequences’ model proposed by George Kubler in 1962. By revealing the formal qualities of the engraved stone, these comparisons illuminate a local stylistic ‘finger-print’ at Nahal Ein Gev II and allow the stone to be positioned within several ‘style sequences’ over time. Examination of other elements of the art assemblage from Nahal Ein Gev II using a similar framework, supports and strengthens these observations. The results shed light on ‘forms’ linking earlier and later traditions; forms which possibly formed broader cultural links within the Levant.