Seeing colors: Collecting and modifying painted flaked items at middle pleistocene Qesem Cave, Israel

Flint items exhibiting modified patinated surfaces (usually known as “double patina”) have become a criterion in assessing lithic recycling. These recycled items are patina-covered flaked items that were collected and modified again.
They show “old” (original) flaked patinated surfaces alongside “new” surfaces with the “old” patina removed. We call these Post Patination Flaked items (PPF items). The goal of this paper is to present the scale and characteristics of these items in three distinct archaeological contexts from Qesem Cave, Israel (420–200 kyr) and to discuss the behavioral and
technological aspects of collecting and modifying PPF items by the cave’s inhabitants. In addition to other recycling trajectories identified thus far, these items may reflect another specific trajectory of lithic recycling practiced at the site. PPF items constitute over 10% (n=903) of the studied assemblages (total n=7,574). As similar items were reported
from several other Old-World Paleolithic sites, it appears that we might be dealing with a pan-Paleolithic phenomenon.
We suggest that these “old” modified, patinated, items from Qesem Cave were selected outside of the cave according to specific criteria regarding their suitability to anticipated technological requirements. We further argue that these
items reflect a profound acquaintance of the environment by the cave’s inhabitants, their technological capabilities, their possible attraction to colorful items and a possible appreciation and relatedness to people who had lived in the area before them.