Giv’at Kipod is one of several isolated basalt hills that are scattered throughout the south-eastern margins of the predominantly chalk Manasseh Hills, ca. 20km south-east of the Mediterranean Sea shoreline. Giv’at Kipod is the only basanite quarry and production site in the Near East, and where hundreds or thousands of basaltic rock bifacials were produced. Based on geochemical tests of bifacials found in several archaeological sites, the site was dated to the PPNA through the Early Chalcolithic periods.
Relevant publications:
Rosenberg, D., Shimelmitz, R. and Nativ, A. 2008. Basalt bifacial tool production in the southern Levant: a glance at the quarry and workshop site of Giv'at Kipod, Israel. Antiquity, 82(316): 367–376.
