2022 年 57 巻 p. 63-78
Studies on the lithic technology of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in the Levant have generally focused on bidirectional blade technology, with other blank production methods receiving less attention. This paper focuses on flint unidirectional blade production using pressure flaking in the Northern Levant and considers the background to the adoption of this technology, mainly based on data from a large Neolithic site, Tell el-Kerkh, in northwestern Syria.
The excavations at Tell el-Kerkh revealed that flint unidirectional blade production using pressure flaking was adopted during the Late PPNB period (late 8th millennium BCE); it is characterized by the use of a wedge-shaped core with a flat platform inclined to the back. At Tell el-Kerkh, flint pressure blade production was composed of two distinct chaîne opératoires, one the blade making for the sickle element blanks, the other bladelet making for the blanks of micro-drills and other bladelet tools. The manufacture of these tools is distinguished from that of other tools, and thus could be interpreted as specialized manufacture.
Available information from other sites suggests that flint pressure blade production spread in the north-western Levant from the Late PPNB onwards. The distribution of sites yielding flint pressure blade debitage implies that this technology was adopted in the Neolithic settlements along the ancient routes in Anatolia and Northern Syria. Based on the data from Tell el-Kerkh and other sites, we infer that the background to the emergence of flint pressure blade production and the specialized tool manufacture of sickle elements and micro-drills might be interpreted in the context of socio-economic developments in Neolithic society in the Northern Levant during the period from the Late PPNB to the Pottery Neolithic.
