The earliest matches

Cylindrical objects made usually of fired clay but sometimes of stone were found at the Yarmukian Pottery Neolithic sites of Sha'ar HaGolan and Munhata (first half of the 8(th) millennium BP) in the Jordan Valley. Similar objects have been reported from other Near Eastern Pottery Neolithic site...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-08, Vol.7 (8), p.e42213-e42213
Main Authors: Goren-Inbar, Naama, Freikman, Michael, Garfinkel, Yosef, Goring-Morris, A Nigel, Goring-Morris, Nigel A, Grosman, Leore
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Ceramics
Clay
Clay minerals
Culture
Drills
Humans
Morphology
Neolithic
Pottery
Prehistoric era
Rods
Seasons
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Stone Age
Summer
Technology
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Summary:Cylindrical objects made usually of fired clay but sometimes of stone were found at the Yarmukian Pottery Neolithic sites of Sha'ar HaGolan and Munhata (first half of the 8(th) millennium BP) in the Jordan Valley. Similar objects have been reported from other Near Eastern Pottery Neolithic sites. Most scholars have interpreted them as cultic objects in the shape of phalli, while others have referred to them in more general terms as "clay pestles," "clay rods," and "cylindrical clay objects." Re-examination of these artifacts leads us to present a new interpretation of their function and to suggest a reconstruction of their technology and mode of use. We suggest that these objects were components of fire drills and consider them the earliest evidence of a complex technology of fire ignition, which incorporates the cylindrical objects in the role of matches.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0042213