Refitting Bifacial Production Waste–The Case of the Pottery Neolithic Wadi Rabah Refuse Pit from Ein Zippori, Israel

A refitting project was performed on a lithic assemblage from the Late Pottery Neolithic Wadi Rabah refuse pit (Locus 8071) found at Ein Zippori, Israel. The assemblage includes mainly waste products from bifacial tool manufacture and maintenance processes. The refitted sequences reflect initial reduction stages as well as advanced re-sharpening and recycling activities. The reconstructed reduction processes include decortication by removal of large flakes, and further shaping by removal of different types of thinning-flakes, probably using a hard hammer. Additional processes reflected by refitting, include post-polish re-sharpening, which in some cases was presumably performed using a soft hammer. Finally, evidence of recycling of bifacial tools into cores is also apparent. The presence of refitted waste, attesting to a range of different reduction stages, performed in the same unknown workshop, perhaps by the same knapper, sheds light on the extent of involvement that the knapper/s had in the life-histories of bifacial tools.