Sophisticated 5,500-year-old flint blade workshop unearthed near Kiryat Gat, Israel

In a Sunday press release, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced the discovery of an ancient flint blade workshop near the city of Kiryat Gat.

“An advanced flint industry dating back approximately 5,500 years was uncovered” at the site, the press release stated.

“The most impressive findings discovered at the site are large flint cores, from which extremely sharp, uniformly shaped blades were produced,” it said. “The blades themselves were used as knives for cutting and butchering, and as harvesting tools, like sickle blades.”

The ancient blade workshop was found within a large settlement, believed to have been used for centuries.

Hundreds of pits were discovered at the site, which were used for “storage, dwellings, production crafts and cultic/social rituals.”

Dr. Jacob Vardi, a prehistorian for the Israel Antiquities Authority, explained that the archaeological evidence indicates a high level of technological sophistication for its time period.

“This is a sophisticated industry,” he said, saying that the site “served as a center, from which Canaanite blades were distributed across broad regions in the Levant.”

The press release further stated that the findings will be publicly displayed this summer at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, located on Jerusalem’s Museum Hill.

The National Campus is set to be the IAA’s headquarters, and is currently conducting tours prior to its full opening.

According to the IAA, the National Campus will house “about two million archeological artifacts…including over 20,000 Dead Sea Scroll fragments.”