BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Bronze Age Blade Workshop Discovered

Archaeologists uncover Canaanite blade production site

Canaanite flint blades discovered near Kiryat Gat. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have discovered an incredibly rare manufacturing site for the production of Canaanite blades in southern Israel. Dating to around 5,500 years ago, the site provides evidence for specialized technologies that would be necessary for the rise of urbanism in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3300–2000 BCE), setting the stage for the impressive Canaanite city-states recorded in the Hebrew Bible.

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Forming a Blade

Despite the period’s name, the most prominent cutting tool in the Early Bronze Age was made not from bronze, but rather flint. Now, archaeologists have a much better idea where these flint blades came from. Discovered during a salvage excavation on the outskirts of Kiryat Gat, the site, known as Nahal Qomem, was inhabited from the last few centuries of the Chalcolithic period (c. 4500–3300 BCE) through the first few centuries of the Early Bronze Age.

The salvage excavations at Nahal Qomem near Kiryat Gat. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

Throughout the site, excavators discovered evidence of large-scale flint blade production, which would have required a high level of expertise. These long blades were formed by carefully striking or exerting pressure on a large chunk of flint, called a core, at just the right angle to chip away a long and narrow piece, called a flake. The flake could then be chipped away further to create an extremely sharp edge. These blades were used for a wide range of purposes, including as butchering knives and harvesting sickles. Both finished blades and flint cores were found in large numbers at the site.

According to the excavation directors, “This is the first time such a workshop has been discovered in southern Israel. Although evidence of the Canaanite blade industry has been discovered in the country’s center and north, there are almost no known workshops for their systematic production.”

The flint blades and cores discovered at an ancient workshop near Kiryat Gat. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

“This is clear evidence that already at the onset of the Bronze Age, the local society here was organized and complex, and had professional specialization,” said Jacob Vardi and Dudu Biton, prehistory experts for the IAA. “Today,” continued Vardi, “we understand that this site served as a center, from which Canaanite blades were distributed across broad regions in the Levant.”

In addition to the blades and cores, archaeologists also discovered hundreds of large underground pits, some lined with mudbricks. These pits could have served a variety of purposes, including as dwellings, storage areas, or production spaces. However, their exact purpose remains unknown.

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