Archaeologists in Israel say they have uncovered the earliest known Neolithic quarry in the southern Levant.

According to Dr. Leore Grosman and Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archeology, the quarry – known as Kaizer Hilltop quarry – was in operation about 11,000 years ago.

The quarry is located in the vicinity of the city of Modiin, some 35 km west of Jerusalem. It is the first of its age, size and scope to be revealed in the southern Levant.

“Kaizer Hill is located in the southwestern outskirts of Modiin, a city that is expanding rapidly with massive construction and hence also destruction of the hills that immediately surround it,” the scientists said.

“It is part of the series of low hills located on the border between the Shephelah and the Judean Hills at about 250 m above msl. The hills and wadis of this region are characterized by eroded sedimentary rocks associated with karstic phenomena.”

Finds from Kaizer Hilltop quarry indicate large-scale quarrying activities to extract flint and limestone for the purpose of manufacturing working tools.

“At the peak of the hill we found damaged rock surfaces, providing evidence to quarrying activity aimed at extracting flint nodules and exploiting the thick layer of caliche (a sedimentary rock locally known by the Arabic term Nari),” Dr. Grosman said.

“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 extraction of flint; creating areas for quarrying dump; and using drilling and chiseling as a primary technique for extracting flint,” Prof. Goren-Inbar added.

The quarry is assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture, dated from 11,600 to 10,200 years ago, one of the incipient cultural stages in the shift from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life.

“Humans became more dominant and influential in their terrestrial landscape and Kaizer Hilltop quarry provides dramatic evidence to the alteration of the landscape,” Dr. Grosman said.

The team reported its discovery this month in the journal PLoS ONE.

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Grosman L. & Goren-Inbar N. 2016. Landscape Alteration by Pre-Pottery Neolithic Communities in the Southern Levant – The Kaizer Hilltop Quarry, Israel. PLoS ONE 11 (3): e0150395; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150395