By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
The ruins of an ancient blade factory unearthed in Israel may offer the clearest evidence yet of the Canaanites, a people long described in the Bible.
Archaeologists in Kiryat Gat, about 40 miles south of Tel Aviv, uncovered the first-ever Canaanite workshop in the region.
The factory contained long flint blades and massive stones used to shape and mold weapons with precision.
Researchers also discovered hundreds of underground pits, some lined with mud bricks, that served as storage areas, dwellings, workshops and even ritual spaces.
The scale and sophistication of the site reveal that the Canaanites had organized settlements, specialized crafts and thriving trade networks.
This glimpse into their daily lives offers a tangible link between the archaeological record and the society described in the Old Testament.
The Bible portrays the Canaanites as the original inhabitants of the Promised Land before the Israelites arrived and conquered the territory.
Experts with the Israel Antiquities Authority said the discovery sheds light on the beginnings of urbanization and professional specialization in the ancient land.
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient blade factory with hundreds of pits used to craft and store weapons more than 5,000 years ago
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The deep pits contained tools for creating the weapons. Archaeologists were amazed by the ‘extremely advanced’ technology used by the Canaanites who are mentioned in the Bible.
‘The most impressive findings discovered at the site are large flint cores, from which extremely sharp, uniformly shaped blades were produced,’ IAA shared in a Facebook post.
‘The blades themselves were used as knives for cutting and butchering, and as harvesting tools, like sickle blades.
‘The production technology was extremely advanced and included the use of a kind of crane to exert precise pressure on the flint.’
The team noted that this also marked the discovery of a never-before-seen technology during that time period.
IAA’s prehistorians Dr Jacob Vardi said: This is a sophisticated industry, not only because of the tools themselves, but also because of what is not found.
‘The waste fragments, the debitage, were not scattered outside the site, perhaps to better protect and preserve the professional knowledge within the group of experts.
‘Today, we understand that this site served as a center, from which Canaanite blades were distributed across broad regions in the Levant.’
In the Early Bronze Age, humans used tools made from natural raw materials: flint, bone, stone and ceramics.