ABSTRACT
Ground stone artifacts remain a poorly explored aspect of the archaeological record. In much of Near Eastern archaeology, reports (when published) consist of little more than a list of the main types present, with short comments mainly noting parallels at other contemporary sites. However, this category of material offers far greater potential for the investigation of past societies than has been generally recognized. While the potential of ceramics and metals for the investigation of past procurement systems has now been widely exploited by archaeologists working in the southern Levant (e.g. Goren 2000; Shalev and Northover 1993) ground stone has received comparatively little attention, despite the durable nature of the raw material, and its obvious potential for provenance studies using geochemistry.
