Researchers have found the oldest metal object yet discovered in the Middle East in a woman's grave dated to between 5100 B.C. and 4600 B.C.
The cone-shaped copper awl unearthed in the 40-year-old woman's resting place indicates that metals were introduced to the Tel Tsaf region in Israel more than 6,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought, Live Science reported.
Chemical analysis of the artifact shows that it likely originated in the Caucasus region, which is around 620 miles away. The researchers have detailed their findings in a study published in PLOS ONE.
Discovered at the Tel Tsaf archaeological site near the Jordan River and Israel's border with Jordan, the awl is around 1.6 inches long and 0.2 inches wide at its base with a tiny tip of just 0.03 inches. The grave was dug inside a silo and covered by several large stones.
"The appearance of the item in a woman's grave, which represents one of the most elaborate burials we've seen in our region from that era, testifies to both the importance of the awl and the importance of the woman, and it's possible that we are seeing here the first indications of social hierarchy and complexity," study co-author Danny Rosenberg, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa in Israel, said in a statement.
Tel Tsaf is characterized by large, mud-brick buildings as well as an unusual number of silos, each of which could hold 15 to 30 tons of wheat and barley.
The find illustrates "the complexity of the people living in Tel Tsaf around 7,000 years before present," Rosenberg told Live Science. "The find suggests that the people of Tel Tsaf were engaged in or at least had acquaintance with advanced technology, metallurgy, hundreds of years before the spread of copper items in the southern Levant."
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