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Prehistoric Quarry Discovered in Israel Compiled by Caleb Whitaker Associate Editor WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Archaeologists discovered the earli- est known Neolithic quarry in the southern Levant region, which dates back 11,000 years. There is evidence at the Kaizer Hill quarry in central Israel, indicating large- scale quarrying activities were under- taken to extract flint and limestone for the purpose of manufacturing tools. A team of archeologists, led by Dr. Leore Grosman and Professor NaamaGoren-Inbar from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, showed how inhabitants of the Neolithic commu- nities changed their landscape forever. Though other prehistoric quarries have been found in the area, the Kaizer Hill quarry is the first of its age, size, and scope to be discovered in the southern Levant, where the Neolithic culture is believed to have started, along with the development of farming communities. The quarry is assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) culture, one of the initial cultural stages in the shift from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life. The introduction of farming is widely regarded as one of the greatest shifts in human history, which led to a changing approach to nature as the landscape was altered. "The economic shift, from hunter-gatherers to agriculture, was accompanied by numerous changes in the social and technological spheres. Various quarrying marks including cup marks showed that the cutting of stones was done in various strategies, including identifying potential flint pockets; creating quarrying fronts on the rocks; removing blocks to allow extrac- tion of flint; creating areas for quarrying dump; and using drilling and chiseling as a primary technique for extracting flint," said Professor Goren-Inbar. Cup marks were common for the period, but less common were trenching marks or isolated drilling marks, which archeol- ogists believe were part of a particular strategy to search for flint. This provides clear evidence of drilling technology being known and widely practiced by the PPNA occupants of Kaizer Hill. Most of the drill markings are located not at the base of the cup mark but perpendicularly to the surface. The marks are either scattered and aligned on the surface to form linear trenching, or vertical with multisurface lines adjacent to one another, forming a long and wide trench. This quarrying strategy seems to have been a combined one, incorporat- ing a search of the rock’s top sur- face, drilling into it, and once the flint was detected, an extensive quarry front was opened in which quarrying advanced through the full thickness of the rock. Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during the Michigan Ground Water Association 2018 Annual Convention. To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com or click here. Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted. Kaizer Hill. Photos by Grosman, Goren-Inbar, PloS ONE. 25 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JUNE 2018