https://phys.org/news/2024-03-elephant-early-humans-proximity-extensive.html

Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University have
uncovered the mystery surrounding extensive
Paleolithic stone quarrying and tool-making
sites: Why did Homo erectus repeatedly revisit
the very same locations for hundreds of
thousands of years? The answer lies in the
migration routes of elephants, which they
hunted and dismembered using flint tools
crafted at these quarrying sites.
...
Prof. Ran Barkai explains, "Ancient humans
required three things: water, food, and
stone. While water and food are necessities
for all creatures, humans relied on stone
tools to hunt and butcher animals, as they
lacked the sharp claws or fangs of other
predators. The question is, why do we find
rock outcrops that were used for the
production of flint tools surrounded by
thousands of stone tools, and next to them,
rock outcrops containing flint that was not
used for the production of tools?"

"A study of indigenous groups that lived
until recently, with some still alive today,
shows that hunter-gatherers attribute great
importance to the source of the stone—the
quarry itself—imbuing it with potency and
sanctity, and hence also spiritual worship."

"People have been making pilgrimages to
such sites for generations upon generations,
leaving offerings at the rock outcrop while
adjacent outcrops, equally suitable for stone
tool production, remain untouched. We sought
to understand why; what is special about
these sites?"
...
Because elephants were the primary dietary
component for these early humans, the Tel
Aviv University researchers cross-referenced
the database of the sites' distribution with
the database of the elephants' migration
routes and discovered that the flint
quarrying and knapping sites were situated
in rock outcrops near the elephants'
migration paths.

"An elephant consumes 400 liters of water a
day on average, and that's why it has fixed
movement paths," says Dr. Finkel. "These are
animals that rely on a daily supply of water,
and therefore on water sources—the banks of
lakes, rivers, and streams."

"In many instances, we discover elephant
hunting and processing sites at 'necessary
crossings'—where a stream or river passes
through a steep mountain pass or when a path
along a lakeshore is limited to the space
between the shore and a mountain range."
...


https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-024-09491-y
Quarries as Places of Significance in the
Lower Paleolithic Holy Triad of Elephants,
Water, and Stone

ABSTRACT
Human dependency on stone has its origins
in Lower Paleolithic times, and some of the
most primordial elements in human-stone
relationships are rooted in those early days.
In this paper, we focus our attention on
extensive Paleolithic stone quarries
discovered and studied in the Galilee,
Israel. We propose a triadic model that
connects stone outcrops, elephants,and
water bodies to shed light on what made
stone quarries places ofsignificance,
beginning in the Lower Paleolithic, and
continuing through out the ages.

"We propose that early humans knew that
elephants consistently walked along the same
paths to waterholes and used this information
to hunt/ambush elephants along these paths.
In the course of hunting/ambushing elephants,
humans repeatedly utilized specific quarry sites
along the trails in preparation for butchering the
large game. We present below archaeological
evidence from two Paleolithic sites in the Jordan
Rift Valley in the Gali-lee, the middle Lower
Paleolithic Gesher Benot Ya’akov site and the late
Lower Paleolithic Ma’ayan Barukh (MB), where
more than 3500 flint han-daxes were collected
(Sharon et al. 2022). Both sites are located in the
northernmost segment of the Dead Sea Rift, part
of the Great African RiftSystem (Figure 1). At
both sites, animal processing tools were brought
to the locality from both nearby and distant sources
in order to procure andbutcher large prey."

The paper is also accessible here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378385808_Quarries_as_Places_of_Significance_in_the_Lower_Paleolithic_Holy_Triad_of_Elephants_Water_and_Stone

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