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On Chalcolithic maceheads and spinning implements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Dafna Langgut ,
Naama Yahalom-Mack ,
Simcha Lev-Yadun ,
Eitan Kremer ,
Micka Ullman  and
Uri Davidovich
Dafna Langgut*
Affiliation:
The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Naama Yahalom-Mack
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Simcha Lev-Yadun
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel
Eitan Kremer
Affiliation:
The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Micka Ullman
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Uri Davidovich
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: langgut@post.tau.ac.il)
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Extract

We are grateful to Ben-Yosef et al. (above) for their thorough critical evaluation of our recent paper. We identified a group of modified wooden shafts originating in two large complex caves with Late Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) burials in the Negev Desert (Israel) as the earliest Levantine wooden spinning implements (Langgut et al. 2016). Their detailed assessment culminated in the alternative hypothesis that the wooden objects functioned as sticks that carried metal maceheads during rituals. This raises several issues that merit serious consideration. Our response to Ben-Yosef et al.'s suggestions is divided into two sections, each concentrating on one of the two main technologies under discussion: spinning and metallurgy.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 357 , June 2017 , pp. 777 - 782
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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