Ba'ja

 

Ba'ja 2008: Summary on the Chipped Lithic Study Season

Christoph Purschwitz, Free University of Berlin

 

 
Ba'ja 2008: Summary on the Chipped Lithic Study Season
Primary and secondary production

 

 

Reduction sequences

Three major reduction chains (chaîne opératoires) have been identified among the sample. One concerns bidirectional blade production, one unidirectional blade production from single platform cores and one concerns biface (celt/adze) production.

Generally the initial stages of all three chaîne opératoires are underrepresented and may have been carried out off-site. Blade production through single platform cores is most common and appears to have been carried out on the household level. Surprisingly frequent are biface products, such as celt/adzes with and without macroscopic use wears associated with some celt/adze roughouts. In both buildings celt/adze clusters occur. In building BI the cluster was associated with relicts of a sandstone ring workshop and their stratigraphical distribution shows that both must have been stored on the roof as the building was abandoned after a fire event. Therefore the household level seems the most likely place of production.

Bidirectional blade production appears less frequent practiced at Ba'ja, than reported from neighboring sites, such as Basta, al-Basit or 'Ain Jammam. It has been suggested by several authors, that 'classical' naviform core technology is absent and only a 'variant' is present (Clegg 2003) or that bidirectional core technology was 'imitated' and the majority of blade blanks were imported (Gebel 2004c). Although the sample under investigation does not allow conclusive evidence on this issue, there are various primary products of bidirectional core reduction suggesting that several bidirectional reduction strategies may have been practiced correlating to different raw material shapes (nodular, semi-tabular/lenticular, or tabular flints; cf. Table 3). Additionally, there are some raw materials only in evidence by bidirectional blanks or tools, which supports the 'import' thesis.

 

 

 

 

   
 
next
     
© ex oriente e.V.   |   contact   |   imprint   |   made by datalino 2008-2019 

Ba'ja Projekt

The Significance of Ba'ja for Early
Near Eastern Neolithic Research

The 1997 Season

The 1999 Season

The 2000 Season

The 2001 Season

The 2003 Season

The 2005 Season

The 2007 Season

The 2008 Season

The 2010 Season

The 2012 Season

The 2016 Season

Eastern Jafr Project

Eastern Jafr
Joint Archaeological Project

Qulban Beni Murra

Bookshop & Publications

Bookshop

Conditions of Sale

Free Downloads

Neo-Lithics

SENEPSE

Downloads of Articles

About us

About us

ex oriente Publishers

Board

Statutes

Contact

Legal Information

Associated Projects, Cooperations

PPND (Neolithic Radiocarbon Dates)

Neolithic Heritage Trail (u.c.)

Basta Joint Archaeological Projekt (u.c.)

PIGPA Project (u.c.)

'Ain Rahub Project (u.c.)

Cooperations

Donations

Donations (u.c.)

News & Activities

News (u.c.)

       
1
2
3
4