In the summer of 2025, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) unearthed an incredible Early Bronze Age flint blade production workshop. The workshop is dated back to about 5,500 years ago. Uncovered in the course of salvage excavations for a planned housing development, this site is the first workshop of this nature ever found in southern Israel.
High-Level Stonecraft
The excavation hauled up sharp, uniformly shaped flint blades and the larger cores from which they were precisely struck. Researchers also found an ingenious crane-like tool to control pressure during flint knapping (shaping). This technical innovation showcases a high level of skill by these Early Bronze Age craftsmen.
Craft Organization In Canaan
According to IAA prehistorians Jacob Vardi and Dudu Biton, the craftspeople who fashioned these Canaanite blades were at the top of their game. The production facility appears to have been highly managed: waste fragments weren’t tossed away randomly, suggesting that specialized blade-making knowledge was kept within the confines of this tightly knit community.
A Settlement Built for Production and Storage
This flint workshop was a key fixture within a larger settlement, with hundreds of underground pits that were used for living, storage, craft activities, and even rituals. According to those overseeing the excavation, the whole situation points to a complex organized community with a clear division of labor and social roles in an Early Bronze Age context.
Prelude To Urbanization and Early Class Differences
Scholars note this discovery helps us comprehend how smaller communities would evolve into cities and even states with a social class structure and job specialization already defined. Professional roles and organized craft production were already well underway in the southern Israel of 3300 BC.
A Unique Find In A Rich Archaeological Record
Remnants of blade production have been found elsewhere in Israel’s center and north, but this is the first documented workshop of its kind in the south. This revelation radically shifts our concept of when and where within the region that culture and technology developed.
Beyond Toolmaking
Besides the hands-on implications of the find, the workshop gives insight into trade routes and customs of the time. Crafted blades were probably desired and traded all across the Levant, an early driver of economic links and interregional connections within the Canaanite world.
Research And Preservation For The Future
All these relics, including blades and cores, are on display at the Jay & Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem this summer. Scholars will keep combing through the site for artifacts, while going through all the archaeological data and past studies to obtain a better grasp of Canaanite life and specialization in all its surprising complexity.
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