The resharpening of sidescrapers is a widely discussed issue in recent Middle Paleolithic studies. However, in the Levantine record the evidence for sidescraper resharpening is meager. The Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla, Israel, represents a rare case in which sidescrapers were frequently modified by removal of longitudinal spalls from their edges. Both parent sidescrapers and spalls, 'Long Sharpening Flakes' (LSF), are abundant throughout the site's stratigraphy, providing a rare opportunity for a complementary study of both artifact groups. The aim of the present study is to reconstruct the life history of sidescrapers retrieved from Nesher Ramla. We ask how the LSF removal changed the morphology of the sidescraper edge, at which stage of the sidescraper life-history it occurred, what was the purpose of LSF removal and was it a part of a recycling system aimed at producing a new edge/tool type or the maintenance of the existing tool edge.

The studied artifacts (100 parent sidescrapers and 60 complete LSF) were sampled randomly from the most intensively occupied and richest layers of the site. Our results suggest that sidescraper edge modification was a well-mastered and skillful process that resulted in standardized and morphologically distinct products. In most cases the sidescrapers were not further retouched after the LSF removal. This leads us to propose that the major goal was to transform the sidescraper into a tool with a sharp, straight and flat edge. The LSF removal at Nesher Ramla provides an exceptional case in which a simple raw edge was deliberately manufactured at the expense of the previously retouched edge. This reinforces the previous assumptions that simple raw edges were often preferred over retouched ones.

This article reviews the activities at the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where techniques and ideas from computer science (e.g., computer graphics, machine learning, etc.) are integrated into archaeological research methodologies. The laboratory operates optical scanners which provide 3D digital models that are then analyzed by computer programs developed in-house. These programs address research issues and needs which could not be tackled without the availability of digital 3D models, thus broadening the horizons of archaeological research. To date, these methods and applications have been applied successfully to more than 30,000 pottery fragments, 3,000 stone tools, and many other archaeological finds submitted by more than 100 expeditions. This level of integration provides daily verification of the 3D approach and its intellectual and economical advantages.

Being a significant and the largest archaeological organization that runs around 250-300 rescue excavations per year, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) sees the near future as the turning point from old traditional documentation methods into the "digital era." The remarkable advantages of new 3D technologies for archaeology are self-evident and have become widespread during the last two decades. First of all, 3D documentation is faster, cheaper, and more accurate than the traditional methods. Second, it improves the accessibility of the data to scholars, and can serve as the digital conservation of deteriorating objects. Third, it opens new levels of research questions which are based on the 3D information. However, the huge amount of data accumulated annually at the IAA calls for a systematic and complete solution that goes beyond the feasibility test of scanning archeological artifacts in 3D. Therefore, we have initiated a new facility - The National Laboratory for Digital Documentation of Archaeological Artifacts. The lab is running in parallel with and closely connected to the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The mutual purpose of the twin laboratories is to harness mathematical and computational methods to support archaeological research, documentation, and visualization (Grosman, Karasik et al. 2014). The laboratory is equipped with modern, high precision scanners which provide digital models of archaeological finds. We apply and continue to develop several tools and algorithms which are used routinely as the ultimate procedure for the analysis, publication, and digital storage of the finds. The up-to-date "life-circle" of archaeological objects, from their first sighting at the excavation until their final rest at the storehouse, is exemplified here with the story of one unique pottery fragment studied within its archaeological context.

Behavioural variability is likely to emerge when a particular task is performed in different cultural settings, assuming that part of human motor behaviour is influenced by culture. In analysing motor behaviour it is useful to distinguish how the action is performed from the result achieved. Does cultural environment lead to specific cultural motor skills? Are there differences between cultures both in the skills themselves and in the corresponding outcomes? Here we analyse the skill of pottery wheel-throwing in French and Indian cultural environments. Our specific goal was to examine the ability of expert potters from distinct cultural settings to reproduce a common model shape (a sphere). The operational aspects of motor performance were captured through the analysis of the hand positions used by the potters during the fashioning process. In parallel, the outcomes were captured by the geometrical characteristics of the vessels produced. As expected, results revealed a cultural influence on the operational aspects of the potters’ motor skill. Yet, the marked cultural differences in hand positions used did not give rise to noticeable differences in the shapes of the vessels produced. Hence, for the simple model form studied, the culturally-specific motor traditions of the French and Indian potters gave rise to an equivalent outcome, that is shape uniformity. Further work is needed to test whether such equivalence is also observed in more complex ceramic shapes.

Cylindrical objects made usually of fired clay but sometimes of stone were found at the Yarmukian Pottery Neolithic sites of Sha‘ar HaGolan and Munhata (first half of the 8^th millennium BP) in the Jordan Valley. Similar objects have been reported from other Near Eastern Pottery Neolithic sites. Most scholars have interpreted them as cultic objects in the shape of phalli, while others have referred to them in more general terms as “clay pestles,” “clay rods,” and “cylindrical clay objects.” Re-examination of these artifacts leads us to present a new interpretation of their function and to suggest a reconstruction of their technology and mode of use. We suggest that these objects were components of fire drills and consider them the earliest evidence of a complex technology of fire ignition, which incorporates the cylindrical objects in the role of matches.