A plethora of flint artifacts in a newly excavated site in central Israel sheds new light into the lives of humans at prehistoric times. The site was discovered when construction began on a new neighborhood for the town of Jaljulia.
The site, comprising some 2.4 acres, was inhabited some 500,000 years ago. It is only one of the few sites that in the Middle East associated with the Acheulean culture, which was known for its extensive use of stone tools.
Among the thousands of flint tools discovered at the site were hundreds of hand axes.
"The unusual scope of the flint tools exposed in the excavation are of great importance for showing the way prehistoric humans lived in the Lower Paleolithic Period in our region," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement. It appears that the conditions in the area made Jaljulia a prime location to which prehistoric humans kept returning."
According to the IAA, the flint tools were made by Homo erectus, an extinct human species from Africa that is considered to be the ancestor of the humans of the modern area.
"At that time, humans were hunter-gatherers, they would move from place to place according to what the area offered them and this site offered three basic needs: drinking water, various types of foods, and flint, which allowed the creation of tools. The size of the site shows that prehistoric humans had geographic memory and possibly returned to the place on a seasonal basis," the statement said.
