Compositional features of cherts from the Jebel Zawa mines (Dohuk, Kurdistan Region of Iraq) and implications for exploitation strategies during the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age
The aim of this paper is to present preliminary data on the composition of the Mid-Upper Eocene chert visible in massive outcrops in the Jebel Zawa valleys, in the Dohuk province of the Northern Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Large chert nodules were systematically extracted from open-air outcrops and natural karst galleries, and employed to produce large blades, known in literature as “Canaanean blades”, from the end of 4th to the mid-3rd millennium BC.