Flint Knapping in the Late Bronze Age: A Dying Technology? A Perspective from the Lower City of Hazor

Abstract

Expedient production constitutes a significant aspect of the lithic assemblages of the Bronze and Iron Ages, particularly of those postdating the Early Bronze Age. The study of this simple flint technology is usually neglected, framed under ‘opportunistic production’. The excavations at the Late Bronze Age Lower City of Hazor Area S, where flint items were collected systematically and sediments sieved, enabled a more detailed study of this relatively unexplored realm of material culture. We demonstrate through our analysis that although the reduction was simple, it was not opportunistic but rather composed of its own goals and logic. We further identify a new tool type — the ‘reverse lunate’ — and show that many of the tools are in fact small and could easily be overlooked without sieving. These findings not only demonstrate that flint knapping was still an integral part of domestic life in the Late Bronze Age, but also illustrate the potential of using this relatively common archaeological find to enrich our study of early state societies in the Ancient Near East.