The excavation finds include pottery vessels and lithic tools, among them flint sickle blades, an adze, a farming implement which based on its exquisite finish was probably used as a cultic object, clay figurines of horned animals, ceramic spindle whorls and animal bones belonging to pigs, goats, sheep and larger herbivores.
Pirhiya Nahshoni, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, reports that the inhabitants of the village chose to establish the settlement in this place owing to the available sources of water – inasmuch as Nahal Guvrin is abundant in arable land and copious springs that also flow during the summer months. “It is apparent from the finds that the inhabitants were engaged in growing grain, as indicated by the sickle blades and the grinding and pounding tools, and in raising animals that supplied milk, meat and wool as attested to by the spindle whorls. The presence of so many pig bones also points to a moist environment which pigs require”, Nahshoni added.
Despite the fact that the settlement was small in scope (at least 1.5 dunams in area), there is evidence that bartering occurred, based on the presence there of basalt vessels and other lithic objects that were brought to the site from afar.
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