Activities at final Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNC) fishing village revealed through microwear analysis of bifacial flint tools from the submerged Atlit-Yam site, Israel

Abstract

Data from the submerged Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) Atlit-Yam site and nearby Pottery Neolithic (PN) sites were used to develop a model of agro-pastoral-maritime economies at early Mediterranean-Levantine Fishing Villages (MFVs) on the coast of Israel ca. 9000–6500 cal BP. Several lithic workshops were also exposed within the 40,000 m2Atlit-Yam site among structures, ceremonial areas, and a deep well. A large number of Neolithic bifacial axes (n = 151) were recovered which could have been used to build water craft, but microwear on a sample of 18 bifaces revealed that chisels and adzes were probably used for that task, while the axes were used to fell trees. Microwear analysis of 206 Neolithic and Chalcolithic bifaces revealed that most PPNA tranchet flint axes and chisels were used for carpentry, rather than tree-felling, but by the Middle and Late PPNB, there were fewer carpentry tools, and polished flint axes were used to open the forests. Microwear on Atlit-Yam bifaces showed that this pattern continued during the PPNC until deforestation and landscape degradation reduced the need for heavy axes. During the PN, adzes replace axes and there are more carpentry tools than tree-felling bifaces. Interior PN agro-pastoralists dispersed from large PPN sites, but the manufacture, use, and repair of bifaces at Atlit-Yam supports the view that coastal groups who had formed self-sufficient MFVs and went to sea to fish, also cleared forests for their crops and grazing lands.