Ancient Hominins at Gesher Benot Ya'akov Showed Long-Term Planning in Basalt Toolmaking
A new study from the Gesher Benot Ya'akov site in the Hula Valley, dated to about 780,000 years ago, says early hominins repeatedly occupied the shores of an ancient Lake Hula and carefully selected basalt for tool production. The research, published in Scientific Reports, was led by Dr. Tzachi Golan and Dr. Yoav Ben Dor of the Geological Survey of Israel together with Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar of the Hebrew University, who directed the excavations.
The site has yielded a rich archaeological record, including flint, limestone and basalt tools, along with evidence of fire use, plant exploitation, animal processing and fish consumption. Basalt was especially important for making large tools such as handaxes and picks, and earlier work showed those implements were produced through a complex sequence that required selecting large basalt slabs, shaping them into giant cores, striking large flakes, and then turning those flakes into bifacial tools.
To determine where the basalt came from, the researchers compared the chemistry of basalt artifacts from several archaeological layers with geological samples from nearby lava flows, as well as basalt recovered from the “Esh Yaaqov” deep drill at the site. They measured major, trace and rare elements and used multivariate statistical methods to match geochemical fingerprints to possible sources. Many artifacts matched sources very close to the site, in some cases only about one kilometer away, while others matched basalt units now buried beneath the surface.
By combining artifact chemistry with drilling data, the team reconstructed parts of a vanished ancient landscape and identified lava flows that were accessible to hominins 780,000 years ago before later tectonic activity buried or erased them. Goren-Inbar said the site lies in an active tectonic zone along the Syrian-African Rift, where faulting, subsidence, erosion and sediment burial reshaped the area over time. The study also found that giant cores and some picks came from different basalt sources, showing that the hominins did not gather any available stone but deliberately chose materials with the right size, shape and internal structure for specific tools.
The repeated selection patterns across multiple layers suggest a long-lived technological tradition lasting tens of thousands of years. The researchers conclude that the Acheulean hominins at Gesher Benot Ya'akov had detailed environmental knowledge that was preserved and passed down, and that they knew how to identify, select and use the right stone for the right tool at the right time.
