The Intermediate Bronze Age Lithic Industry from Ein Ziq: Implications for Cultural Affinities, Function, and Chronology

The lithic assemblage from Ein Ziq, the largest Intermediate Bronze Age site in the Central Negev, constitutes the largest component of material culture from the site. Technological and typological analyses allow characterization of the assemblage as primarily an ad hoc flake tool industry, produced on-site on local raw materials. Functionally, the assemblage reflects a set of domestic activities with little evidence for systematic agriculture. The ad hoc assemblage reflects basic technological continuities with preceding cultures of the region, but the disappearance of several types (tabular scrapers, arrowheads) suggests cultural and functional changes in the second half of the third millennium BCE.