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Flint mining in prehistory recorded by in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be
G Verri1, R Barkai, C Bordeanu
1Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Abstract:
The development of mining to acquire the best raw materials for producing stone tools represents a breakthrough in human technological and intellectual development. We present a new approach to studying the history of flint mining, using in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be concentrations. We show that the raw material used to manufacture flint artifacts approximately 300,000 years old from Qesem Cave (Israel) was most likely surface-collected or obtained from shallow quarries, whereas artifacts of the same period from Tabun Cave (Israel) were made of flint originating from layers 2 or more meters deep, possibly mined or quarried by humans.
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