Flint sickle
Hoz de sílex (hojas con lustre de cereal)
- Date
- c. 23 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (Kebaran)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Flint blades with the sheen and micro-wear of cereal-stalk harvesting, hafted onto handles. Systematic reaping selects for plants with non-shattering ears, initiating unintentional domestication.
The classic Natufian sickles (Eynan, c. 12,500 BCE) are the type example; those from Ohalo II were identified in 2016 and push the technique back 8,000 years.
What it led to
- Unconscious selection of cereals that retain their grain: domestication
- Mass harvesting and storage: the Natufian economy
- The first tool specifically for agriculture
Built on
- Hafting of stone pointsc. 500 ka
- Microliths (backed bladelets)c. 71 ka
- Grinding of wild cereals (grinding stone)c. 23 ka
- Grinding of wild cereals (grinding stone)
- Hafting of stone points
Made possible
- Flatbread from wild cerealsc. 14.4 ka
- Cereal fermentation (beer)c. 13 ka
- Flatbread from wild cereals
- Cereal fermentation (beer)