Tabular Scraper Quarries: A View from Har Qeren in the Western Negev

The site of Har Qeren 15 is a small tabular scraper quarry and campsite attributable to the Timnian culture complex, 6th–3rd millennium Cal BCE, perhaps in the earlier part of the span. Analyses of the lithic materials and their spatial distribution offer a picture of non-intensive production reflecting the production of tabular scrapers and ad hoc tools, perhaps linked to the seasonal round of local pastoral groups. Combined with other sites from the region, this picture of extensive, almost opportunistic production, contrasts with some of the models of intensive production of tabular scrapers based on sites in Jordan. This suggests either that several modes of manufacture operated during this long period, that the large sites of Jordan represent long, extended periods of exploitation rather than some intensive and specialized system of production, or chronological shifts in the intensity of production.