November
22
/ 2023
Researchers have unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant, dating back approximately 7,200 years. This finding, centered in what is now modern Israel, reveals a period of mass weapon production, in the form of deadly slingstones, far earlier than previously known. The team, consisting of Dr. Gil Haklay, Enno Bron, Dr. Dina Shalem, Dr. Ianir Milevski, and Nimrod Getzov from the Israel Antiquities Authority, analyzed 424 slingstones from the Early Chalcolithic period (circa 5800–4500 BC), announced Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on its Facebook page. These artifacts were excavated from two significant sites: ‘En Esur in the northern Sharon plain and ‘En Zippori in the Lower Galilee, both conducted by the IAA. Remarkably, the hundreds
