ABSTRACT
Of all the realms of material culture found at Gilat, the chipped stone assemblage probably represents the most profane dimension of material culture found at the site. At Gilat, the two most common forms of material culture are the ceramics and lithics. While ceramics played an important role in both domestic and ritual activities at the site, only limited aspects of the chipped stone assemblage can be linked to ritual activities. The vast majority of the tools and debitage recovered from Gilat were related to domestic activities. However, several types of flint artifacts indicate a role in activities beyond the domestic sphere. This includes the large number of tabular scrapers and their possible linkage to animal hide and wool processing (Chapter 14, this volume). In at least one example, axes were placed in ritual deposits as votive or foundation deposits. While these aspects of the lithic assemblage are discussed here, the major contribution of this chapter is the detailed presentation of the entire corpus of material found during the 1990–92 excavations to facilitate comparative studies with other Levantine and eastern Mediterranean sites. Thus, this chapter provides typological descriptions of the chipped stone assemblage and comparison with other published Chalcolithic chipped stone assemblages. As noted by other scholars (Gilead et al. 1995; Levy and Rosen 1987; Rosen 1997), earlier collections of chipped stone assemblages from Chalcolithic sites have ignored or discarded many components of the lithic assemblages, particularly the expedient flake tools and debitage, which creates problems for comparative studies. Compounding this issue, analyses of Chalcolithic chipped stone assemblages are still hampered by a lack of agreement on 1) typology, 2) field sampling methods, and 3) incomplete and disparate reporting and storage systems. Despite these drawbacks, beginning in the 1980s, all relevant chipped stone data began to be recorded from a number of northern Negev sites such as Shiqmim (Levy and Rosen 1987; Rowan 1990), Grar (Gilead 1995) and the Wadi Gaza sites (Roshwalb 1981). As this is the most intensively researched region of Chalcolithic settlement in Palestine, these assemblages provide important comparative material for Gilat. However, until systematically collected assemblages are published from other Chalcolithic settlement regions, the chronological, geographical and cultural potential of lithic analysis remains severely constrained.
