500,000 years ago, inhabitants of the Carmel knew their land well

Ancient humans were able to select raw materials for their tools based on technological criteria.

By ROSSELLA TERCATIN
Nahal Me‘arot Caves, Mount Carmel (photo credit: DOTAN DRUCK)
Nahal Me‘arot Caves, Mount Carmel
(photo credit: DOTAN DRUCK)
Half a million years ago, inhabitants of the Carmel region – in northern Israel – showed a high level of environmental and geological awareness, a study published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science showed.
The paper presented the results of a geological survey of the chert outcrops in the area and the use of the different materials.
“Chert is a very unique type of stone, very tough,” the author of the paper, Dotan Druck from the University of Haifa told The Jerusalem Post. “It could be used for many types of daily activities, including cutting, digging, killing animals and butchering them. It was very popular in many zones of the world and we still see it in use up to 2,000 years ago, mainly for agricultural purposes.”
The study focused on the prehistoric people living around the Nahal Me‘arot Caves.
“The chert used for tools came from several sites around the Carmel mountain, but mainly from two sources, the Shamir formation and a wadi [valley] nearby the caves,” Druck said.
The researcher also pointed out that those ancient humans were able to select raw materials for their tools based on technological criteria, and especially by the size of the chert collected, as they were also wandering around the area looking for food or other needs.
“When they were out hunting animals, they also collected the stones, something quite different from this was happening for example in Europe where ancient groups traveled even dozens of kilometers to find certain kinds of materials,” he said.
The ability of the inhabitants of the Nahal Me‘arot Caves to find and use the chert they needed for their tools in their local surroundings shows that they knew the environment they lived in extremely well, Druck explained.
“In the military history field, which I’m also active in, ‘environmental awareness’ is a concept used to indicate the understanding of the area where someone is living, where sources of food or water are, different services and stores, its infrastructures and so on and so forth. I believe this concept applies well to the prehistoric people of the Nahal Me‘arot Caves,” he concluded.


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