Communities of Practice at Kharaneh IV: Flintknapping and Skill Acquisition

During the summer of 2019, I conducted a raw material survey to ground truth previous work that had identified various flint outcrops in the region as the sources for flint at Kharaneh IV and to collect said flint for experimental flintknapping. With a small team, we collected over 300lbs of flint and worked to reproduce the stone tool technologies while in Jordan. Both high and low quality flint was brought back to Berkeley for future experimentation with novice flintknappers. This experiment is designed to help identify skilled vs unskilled flintknappers in the archaeological record.

Aaron Brody

ARF Partner

Dr. Aaron Brody, Robert and Kathryn Riddell Professor of Bible and Archaeology and Director, Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology, has studied and worked on projects in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean. He has held research posts at both the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, in Jerusalem; the University of Haifa; and the American Center for Oriental Research, in Amman.

Region(s): 
Near East
Research Theme(s): 
archaeology of the southern Levant; materiality of religion, society, economy, identity, and ethnicity in Bronze and Iron Age Levant; postcolonialism; maritime and deepwater archaeology

Benjamin W. Porter

Benjamin W. Porter
Affiliated Faculty
Teaching Website: 
BW Porter on Academia.edu

Benjamin W. Porter a associate professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the University of California, Berkeley's Near Eastern Studies Department. Porter is a Near Eastern archaeologist who investigates how past Middle Eastern and Mediterranean societies built resilient communities and institutions in arid and semi-arid zones. He directs field archaeology projects in Jordan at the Iron Age capitals of Dhiban and Busayra. He also co-directs a museum collections project at the Hearst Museum that is researching evidence from Peter B.

Region(s): 
Near East, Mediterranean
Research Theme(s): 
Early Iron Age