title: The earliest matches.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel. goren@cc.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goren-Inbar
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freikman
authors.forename: Yosef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Garfinkel
authors.forename: A Nigel
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Goring-Morris
authors.forename: Nigel A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Goring-Morris
authors.forename: Leore
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grosman
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans