Work

Flint mining in prehistory recorded by in situ -produced cosmogenic 10 Be

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: The development of mining to acquire the best raw materials for producing stone tools represents a breakthrough in human technological and intellectual development. We present a new approach to studying the history of flint mining, using in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be concentrations. We show that the raw material used to manufacture flint artifacts approximately 300,000 years old from Qesem Cave (Israel) was most likely surface-collected or obtained from shallow quarries, whereas artifacts of the same period from Tabun Cave (Israel) were made of flint originating from layers 2 or more meters deep, possibly mined or quarried by humans.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0402302101

Authors: G. Verri, R. Barkai, C. Bordeanu, A. Gopher, M. Hass, A. Kaufman, P. Kubik, E. Montanari, M. Paul, A. Ronen, S. Weiner, E. Boaretto

Institutions: Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Ferrara, ETH Zurich, Weizmann Institute of Science, University of Haifa, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Language: English

Topic: Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Minerva Foundation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

OpenAlex ID: W1998507039

FWCI: 6.556

Cites: 18

Cited by: 46

Related to: 10