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Recent research has demonstrated that the Eocene Timrat formation in northeasternIsrael, which appears as an extensive land "strip" west of and parallel to the Rift Valley, was a major source of prehistoric flint. This supposition is supported by three large-scale extraction and reduction (E&R) complexes identified within this region, which offer direct evidence of intense Lower and Middle Palaeolithic exploitation and limited Neolithic/ Chalcolithic activities. Here, we present a first comprehensive overview of this "industrial strip" and of its E&R complexes (Nahal Dishon, Mt. Achbara, and Sede Ilan), demonstrating that these production areas were used mainly for the manufacture of large-volume items such as Lower Palaeolithic hand axes, Middle Palaeolithic Levallois cores, and Neolithic/Chalcolithic axes/adzes. Furthermore, we integrate information from recently published field studies and lithic analyses with new intercomplex and intracomplex inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-MS) analyses of flint debitage. The relatively large number of analysed samples (n = 69) constitutes the first robust reference database for provenance studies of this E&R "strip." The potential contribution for provenance studies is demonstrated by a detailed ICP-MS comparison drawn between specific extraction and reduction localities within the Dishon complex and flint tools found in six occupation sites located up to 20 km from the sources. The detailed geochemical study also yielded methodological insights regarding challenges associated with flint heterogeneity and patination effects. K E Y W O R D S flint extraction and reduction, Galilee, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, Palaeolithic, provenance studies

One of the unsolved ‘paradoxes’ in prehistoric archaeology is that of the gap between the considerable advances in human biological and cultural evolution during the Lower Palaeolithic period, and the over one million years of ‘stagnation’ of the Acheulean handaxe. Most of the research on this topic has focused on innovation – why it was delayed or failed to take place – while overlooking the fact that innovation had occurred in many other fields during the same period. We suggest that practical, social, and adaptive mechanisms were in force in certain areas of human behaviour and led to enhanced innovation, while conservatism was preferred in handaxe technology and use. In this study we emphasise the dependency of Acheulean groups on calories obtained from large mammals, and especially megafauna, as well as the central role of handaxes in processing large carcasses. It is our contention that the handaxe’s role in Acheulean adaptation was pivotal and it thus became fixed in human society, probably through the psychological bias towards majority imitation, which subsequently became a social norm or tradition. In brief, we suggest that the technological persistence of the Acheulean handaxe played an adaptive role that was based on a preferred cultural conservatism and led to the successful survival of Lower Palaeolithic populations over hundreds of thousands of years in the Old World.

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