Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

TELL QARAMEL

SYRIA

CHIPPED STONE (FLINT) INDUSTRY

A local brown ('chocolate') flint continued
to be the chief raw material identified in
the flint industry at the site (95%). No
obsidian was found.
Three kinds of cores, all for blade
production, were identified: opposite
bipolar with one striking platform, single-
polar irregular with one striking platform,
and multi-polar all-direction exploitation
cores, the latter two types in small
numbers. The number of single-polar cores
increased in the lower levels, but all the
mentioned types frequently coexisted in the
same stratum. Virtually all the cores were
extremely exploited by hard hammering
technique in the last phases of exploitation.
Pressing, indirection and very seldom a soft
hammer technique were also observed.
The majority of the tools were made on
rather small blades [Fig. 9]. The longest
specimens were not longer than 6-7 cm,
the average being 3-6 cm in length and
0.9-1.4 cm in width. The most numerous
groups of tools were points and sickle-
blades (more than 50% of the assemblage).
El-Khiam points in several varieties
prevailed. Points with straight or lightly

concave base and proximal recesses were
the most numerous. Some specimens had
additional pairs of recesses near the top and
retouched on the bottom side of the tool.
The El-Khiam type points were 2-3.5 cm
long as a rule and about 1 cm wide. Longer
fragments (over 3.5 cm) were recorded, but
not one completely preserved specimen
was discovered. There was also a small
number of points with handle, about 2.5
cm in length and not standardized in
shape.
Retouched blades and burins (corner
and wedge types), perforators or borers
were also frequent among the finds. Except
for a few burins, all of the above were made
on blades. The same referred to scrapers
and end-scrapers. Only a few specimens
were executed on flakes and flakes with
cortex. Among the perforators and borers,
furnished usually with a long piercing
sting, the specimens meriting attention
were the ones shaped like a shovel, some-
times with a sting 4-5 cm in length.
The nearest parallels to this assemblage
can be found in the late Natufian and Early
Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement.

GROUND AND PECKED STONE INDUSTRY

The current assemblage of 202 artifacts
representing the ground and pecked stone
industry from aceramic (PPNA) layers [Fig.
10]. has again been classified following R.F.
Mazurowski's system.5 It includes two
spherical bolas balls (IA1) made of brown
flint; fragments of flat circular quern-like
objects (IIA1) made of white limestone and
much more common oval querns (IIBla),
nearly all made of basalt; 52 single-pole or
double-pole pestles (IIIA1 or IIIA2) most

often made of chlorite, nine of these
featuring grooves or lines made with a very
sharp flint tool; 20 circular or oval grinders,
unilateral (IIIDlaMIIElb) or bilateral
(IIID2a, IIIE2b, IIIE2c), made of basalt;
three limestone mortars (2-IVA1, 1-IVA2);
fragments of mortar pounders (VC1\2,
VDR2); 15 trapezoidal (VIIA, VIIA1) or
triangular (VIIA2) celts made of chlorite or
greenstone (diabase), four of them decorated
on one or two edges with elongated or lateral

5 R.F. Mazurowski, Ground and Pecked Stone Industry in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Northern Iraq (Warsaw 1997).

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