A Minet ed Dhalia point or stylet is an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

term for an elongated,

isosceles triangle In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two Edge (geometry), sides of equal length and two angles of equal measure. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at le ...

made with

pressure flaking In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industrie ...

on both faces of a piece of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

. They are predominantly found at sites in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

(ancient

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

). They are the type tool of the Énéolithique Ancien (Ancient

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

), named after the archaeological site of Minet ed Dhalia in Ras Beirut. The stylets range from to in length. They were first observed by Dawson in 1884 and later by Godefroy Zumoffen in 1910 and called "stylets" by Raoul Describes.Zumoffen, Godefroy., Le Néolithiqueen Phénicie, Anthropos, Volume 5, Plate V, p. 150, 1910. The exact use of Minet ed Dhalia points is uncertain although the shape bears certain similarities to metal fleshing tools used in the area in modern times.

References

{{Reflist Ancient weapons Lithics Paleolithic