What Once Was Shall Be Again: Palaeolithic Bifaces at the Neolithic Site of Giv'at Rabi East

Summary Giv'at Rabi East is a Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B site located in northern Israel, interpreted as a flint workshop. One area has been spatially identified as a ‘biface locality’; it is characterized by the presence of finished axes and preforms alongside débitage. Interestingly, Acheulean bifaces have also been recovered from this area. Aside from these, no other diagnostic Lower Palaeolithic artefacts have been identified, and the integrity of the Neolithic contexts is well established. It is therefore suggested that Neolithic knappers collected Acheulian bifaces from nearby sites and brought them to the workshop. Technological similarity along with an apparent appreciation for artefacts knapped hundreds of thousands of years earlier – and for the ancient people who knapped them – may partially explain this intriguing phenomenon. These findings shed new light on the enduring significance of bifacial tools in the lives of Neolithic communities in the southern Levant.