Microdrill use at Khiamian sites in central and northern Levant (Syria and Lebanon)

Abstract

Drills are a particularly common tool type in the Khiamian, a period of rapid historical change in the Near East. In the Khiamian levels at Tell Mureybet, Wadi Tumbaq 1 and Nachcharini, they were used mainly to perforate stone beads. This can be appreciated from the use-wear marks on the active areas and the residue conserved on them. All the evidence points to at least some of them being hafted, and they may have formed part of a mechanical rotation system that facilitated the drilling process. The working context indicates an increasing degree of standardisation from the Natufian onwards, as seen both in the preparation of the tools and in the final products. The work also became more organised spatially. As the products were objects of personal adornment, it may be imagined that this shift reflected the new role of personal and social identities in this period of great change and innovation in the beginnings of the Neolithic.