A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in Kiryat Gat has revealed a 5,500-year-old flint blade manufacturing workshop—the first of its kind found in southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. Uncovered during a salvage excavation ahead of neighborhood construction in the Carmei Gat area, the site offers a rare glimpse into the technological sophistication and societal complexity of the Early Bronze Age.

The excavation at the Naḥal Qomem site, also known as Gat-Govrin or Zeita, uncovered an advanced flint industry. It includes long, finely-crafted blades and, unusually, the large flint cores from which they were made.

“This is the first time such a workshop has been discovered in southern Israel,” said Dr. Martin David Pasternak, Shira Lifshitz, and Dr. Nathan Ben-Ari, the Antiquities Authority’s excavation directors. “Although evidence of the Canaanite blade industry has been discovered in the country’s center and north, there are almost no known workshops for their systematic production.”