The recycling of flint throughout the Lower and Middle Paleolithic sequence of Tabun Cave, Israel

Tabun Cave provides an opportunity to examine transformations in the methods and intensity at which hominins recycled flint items along a sequence of ca. 500 ky from the Lower Paleolithic to the Middle Paleolithic periods. The studied sequence is composed of results from Jelinek's excavations and Ronen's excavations which sampled different parts of the stratigraphic section of Tabun Cave, together covering 16 m depth of superimposed archaeological layers. The recycling of flint is examined using three aspects: (1) the presence of patinated items, (2) the phenomenon of ‘handaxes with a preferential flake scar’ along with other aspects indicating the recycling of handaxes as cores, and (3) the presence of items which are both cores-on-flakes and tools, indicating a complex life-history. The changes in their frequencies and characteristics along the sequence are presented through a study of 20 assemblages spanning from the Acheulean, Lower Paleolithic to the early Middle Paleolithic.