Discovered where prehistoric people mined flint to hunt elephants

Igneous rock is a silica-based sedimentary rock with a closed crystalline structure and high hardness and sharpness. In human history, in prehistoric times, people discovered and used flint as a tool to rub against other materials to create fire. Prehistoric people often used pieces of flint with sharp edges to make ax blades and spear tips to hunt animals and used flint pieces as tools to cut meat from wild animals.

Elephant hunting was a big deal at that time because one elephant could solve the hunger problem of many people in a few days. Studies at Paleolithic archaeological sites such as Gesher Benot Ya'kov in Israel have shown that elephants were an important part of the diet of prehistoric humans.

A team of Israeli researchers discovered many ancient flint quarries in the area and that they were located near water sources where migrating elephants stopped to rest, bathe and drink.

Study co-author Meir Finkel, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, said: 'An average elephant consumes 400 liters of water a day and that is why elephant herds often have migratory routes. near water".

They suggest that these flint mining sites were favored by prehistoric Homo erectus (an early ancestor of modern humans, who lived about 1.89 million years ago). They are located near the roads to the Paleolithic archaeological sites at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Ma'ayan Baruch in the Hula Valley, between the Sea of ​​Galilee and Israel's borders with Syria and Lebanon.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 03 April 2024