Tahun ben Aissa is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
about 3.5 kilometres southwest of
Joub Jannine
Joub Jannine ( / ALA-LC: ''Jub Jannīn'') is located in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
Joub Jannine is the capital of West Beqaa. It is a town and the center of the Western Beqaa District, hosting the Serail, which is a main governmental buildin ...
in the
Beqaa Valley in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
.
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This archaeological site, located on the left bank of the Litani was studied in 1965–66 by Lorraine Copeland
Lorraine Copeland (born Elizabeth Lorraine Adie, 1921April 2013) was a British archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic period of the Near East. She was a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive during World War II.
Early life
...
and Peter Wescombe. Materials found included flints used for heavy chopping including trapezoidal, oval and rectangular shaped axe
An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...
s. A few sickle
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting, or reaping, grain crops or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feed ...
blades with fine denticulation along with some scrapers and an oval shaped arrowhead
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
were found. Analysis of the recovered materials enabled Jacques Cauvin
Professor Jacques Cauvin (1930 – 26 December 2001) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the prehistory of the Levant and Near East.
Biography
Cauvin started his work in France at Oullins Caves and Chazelles Caves (near Saint-André- ...
and Marie-Claire Cauvin to suggest that the site was contemporary with the earliest neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
levels at Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
.
References
{{Portal, Lebanon, History, Asia
Neolithic settlements
Archaeological sites in Lebanon