Excavators also determined that the site had been used continuously for hundreds of years, from the Chalcolithic period through the Early Bronze Age.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in Kiryat Gat has revealed a 5,500-year-old flint blade manufacturing workshop—the first of its kind found in southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

Uncovered during a salvage excavation ahead of neighborhood construction in the Carmei Gat area, the site offers a rare glimpse into the technological sophistication and societal complexity of the Early Bronze Age.

The excavation at the Naḥal Qomem site, also known as Gat-Govrin or Zeita, uncovered an advanced flint industry.

It includes long, finely-crafted blades and, unusually, the large flint cores from which they were made.

“This is the first time such a workshop has been discovered in southern Israel,” said Dr. Martin David Pasternak, Shira Lifshitz, and Dr. Nathan Ben-Ari, the Antiquities Authority’s excavation directors.

“Although evidence of the Canaanite blade industry has been discovered in the country’s center and north, there are almost no known workshops for their systematic production.”

The presence of a full-scale workshop, rather than scattered blade remnants, indicates the development of a highly organized, professional craft industry.

Ancient blades found in a newly discovered workshop in Israel. (X Screenshot)

“The discovery of a sophisticated workshop indicates a society with a complex social and economic structure already at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age,” the directors explained.

“This is an important find in that it deepens the understanding of both the beginnings of urbanization and of professional specialization in the Land of Israel—phenomena that led to the establishment of large settlements and that catalyzed the creation of new social structures.”

According to the Antiquities Authority, prehistorians Dr. Jacob Vardi and Dudu Biton:

“An advanced industry was revealed at the site, requiring an extremely high level of expertise. Only exceptional individuals knew how to produce the Canaanite blades. This is clear evidence that already at the onset of the Bronze Age, the local society here was organized and complex, and had professional specialization.”

Excavators also determined that the site had been used continuously for hundreds of years, from the Chalcolithic period through the Early Bronze Age.

The settlement spans over half a kilometer—far larger than previously estimated—and contains hundreds of underground pits, some lined with mud bricks.

These pits served multiple purposes, including storage, dwellings, production activities, and likely cultic or social rituals.

The most impressive artifacts are the flint cores. From these, craftspeople produced highly uniform and sharp blades that were used as knives for butchering and as agricultural tools, such as sickle blades.

The production process employed surprisingly advanced technology, including a lever-and-crane-like apparatus for applying precise pressure to the stone.

“In the Early Bronze Age, humans used tools made from natural raw materials: flint, bone, stone and ceramics,” explained Vardi. “However, in this period the Canaanite blades were the main cutting tools.”

The sophistication of the industry is also evident in what was not found.

“The waste fragments, the debitage, were not scattered outside the site—perhaps to better protect and preserve the professional knowledge within the group of experts,” Dr. Vardi added.

“Today, we understand that this site served as a center, from which Canaanite blades were distributed across broad regions in the Levant.”

The artifacts will go on display in Jerusalem during the summer.

The post Discovery of early Bronze Age workshop sheds light on Canaanite industry appeared first on World Israel News.

“The police do nothing” – Yeshiva students studying in Switzerland say a knife-wielding Arab man threatened to stab them, accuse local police of ignoring matter as suspect remains at large.

By World Israel News Staff

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews studying in Switzerland have accused local authorities of failing to properly address threats of a potential stabbing attack after they were harassed by a knife-wielding man over the weekend.

The incident occurred in the city of Lucerne, in a German-speaking region of western Switzerland.

A group of 10 yeshiva students, including several Israelis, who are studying in a Swiss yeshiva were confronted Saturday night by a man they described as Arab.

The suspect approached the yeshiva students near a local train station at roughly 8:30 p.m., before the end of the Jewish Sabbath.

During the encounter, the suspect asked whether they were Jewish.

He then spat on them and drew a knife, which he used to threaten the yeshiva students.

“On Shabbat evening, my friends and I went for a walk in the city and arrived at the train station, where an Arab man approached us and asked if we were Jews,” one of the yeshiva students wrote on social media, according to a report by Yedioth Ahronoth.

With the help of passersby, the attacker was driven off.

“He spat on us. We tried to move away from him, but he wouldn’t back off, and at some point he pulled out a knife and pressed it to one friend’s stomach. Then locals intervened and he panicked.”

No injuries were reported in the incident.

Police were called to the scene, but did not apprehend the suspect, who had fled prior to their arrival.

In his social media post, the yeshiva student lamented that police appeared apathetic to the case.

“The police do nothing even when there is evidence.”

The students later returned to the scene of the incident and noted that the area has a number of security cameras, which likely recorded the crime.

No formal complaint has been filed in the matter, as the students were unable to sign the police complaint at the time of the incident during the Sabbath. The students are also unable to sign the complaint on Sunday, as local authorities only respond to emergency cases that day.

Police advised the students to submit their complaint on Monday.

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A knife was found during a search of the terrorist’s vehicle.

By JNS

Israeli forces on Tuesday thwarted an attempted vehicular assault in Gush Etzion, according to the military.

The driver, a Palestinian, tried to run over civilians at the Gush Etzion Junction, located south of Bethlehem about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces said.

IDF forces neutralized the assailant following a pursuit. He was subsequently arrested and taken to hospital for treatment.

There were no other injuries in the attack.

A knife was found during a search of the terrorist’s vehicle.

On Sunday, an Israeli police officer was lightly wounded in a stabbing at the Lion’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.

The assailant was neutralized by Israeli security forces on the scene.

Also on Sunday night, a Palestinian terrorist attempted to stab Israel Defense Forces soldiers at the Hussan Junction near the ultra-Orthodox city of Beitar Illit in Judea.

No casualties were reported in the incident and the terrorist was neutralized, the IDF said.

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