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I witnessed almost daily the departure of troops to the front and the return of wounded, sick and dead. It occurred to me if I could invent a machine-- a gun-- which could by its rapidity of fire enable one man to do as much battle as one hundred, then the number of men exposed to disease and death would be greatly diminished.

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Unlike scattered remnants typical of prehistoric sites, this workshop was fully intact. The presence of both finished blades and the rare cores they came from suggests a centralized, organized operation. Interestingly, waste fragmentsor debitagewere notably absent, likely removed to protect the craft's specialized knowledge.
"This was not just a workshop; it was a regional distribution center," said excavation co-directors Dr. Martin David Pasternak, Shira Lif****z, and Dr. Nathan Ben-Ari. "Blades produced here were likely exported across the Levant."
The workshop was part of a vast, complex settlement occupied continuously from the Chalcolithic period into the Early Bronze Age. Spanning over half a kilometer, the site included hundreds of subterranean pits lined with mud bricks, used for storage, habitation, workshops, and ritual practicesclear signs of early urban planning.
Biblical Context: Near the Land of Goliath
The site's location adds an extra layer of historical intrigue. Modern-day Kiryat Gat, where the excavation took place, lies near the biblical city of Gathhome of the Philistine warrior Goliath. In the Bible, Gath features prominently in the stories of David, King Saul, and the Israelite-Philistine conflict.
During King Saul's time, according to the Book of Samuel, Israelites lacked access to iron weapons, which were monopolized by the Philistines. Ironically, thousands of years earlier, the ancestors of this region had mastered flint technology capable of producing lethal, precision toolslong before metalworking became widespread.
A New Chapter in Early Civilization
The discovery deepens our understanding of how early humans organized society, managed resources, and developed specialized industries. It also challenges prior assumptions about technological advancement during the Early Bronze Age.
"This is one of the most significant prehistoric discoveries in southern Israel," the excavation team noted. "It shows that the foundations of urbanization and professional economy were laid much earlier than previously believed."

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nortex97 said:

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How the Bf-109 saved Israel.

Just a tad bit of irony, there. The Fw-190 only achieved half the amount of victories of the -109.

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But Israeli agents had difficulty purchasing military equipment because of an arms embargo. Finally, Otto Felix found a Czech arms dealer willing to sell Avia S-199s at the then-exorbitant rate of $180,000 each, equivalent to $1.8 million today. The price included equipment, ammunition, delivery, and flying lessons for the Israeli pilots, many of whom had only civilian flying experience.
The first order for 10 S-199s was followed by another for 15. When the Israelis subsequently received an offer to purchase far more capable P-47 Thunderbolts at a lower price, they turned it down.
The new air force also lacked qualified pilots and mechanics, so it assembled a rag-tag group of volunteers, adventurers and low-paid mercenaries known asMachal or Machalniks.
Of the 609 personnel that served in the Israeli air force in its first war, 181 were Israeli-born, 182 came from the United States, 80 were South African and around 50 each hailed from Canada and the United Kingdom. The remainder came from at least a dozen other countries. Around four-fifths were Jewish.
On May 6, 1948, two of these volunteers and eight Haganah pilots left for the Czech Republic to begin training on the S-199s.
Four Broken Aircraft Save Tel Aviv:
On May 18, an Egyptian C-47 dropped bombs on Tel Aviv's central bus terminal, killing 42 people and wounding more than 100.
When the Israeli pilots learned of the attack, they demanded to return to Israel early. Their Czech instructors objected that the volunteers hadn't even received basic combat training, and only the experienced pilots had any chance of operating the aircraft safely. But the volunteers got their way and headed back to the Middle East.
Plans to ferry the S-199s directly became impossible because of the arms embargo. Instead, technicians dismantled the S-199s. Each was shipped over in two separate flights by enormous long-range C-46 Commando transport aircraft. These flew first to Corsica and from there to Ekron now Tel Nof Air Base in Operation Balak, which began on May 20.

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The DB605 engines were lost, so they had to use the Junkers Jumo-F engines (from Heinkel bombers), making them a bit…iffy vs. the German predecessor.

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Germany unleashed 30 tons of poison gas on a small fortress.

The chlorine was so lethal it killed birds mid-flight.

Then 2,000 soldiers marched forward, expecting only corpses inside.

The gates opened, and what emerged sent them all fleeing in fear... 🧵 pic.twitter.com/oIHaPAOsnj

— Rayan (@RayanAhmad74) August 2, 2025

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In the early morning hours of August 6, 1915, Russian soldiers were awakened by the sound of a German artillery barrage and then a dark green and thick cloud began to drift over their lines and into the Osowiec Fortress choking the men of the Russian 226th infantry regiment as they rushed to their defensive positions.
The chemical mixture of Chlorine and Bromine gas launched by the Germans turned into hydrochloric acid as it was inhaled by the Russian soldiers and ate away at their lungs causing them to suffocate on their own blood.
In a hasty attempt to save themselves from the suffocating gas, the Russian troops defending the trenches in front of Osowiec wrapped bandages soaked in their own urine around their faces, covering their noses and mouths in a desperate attempt to keep from inhaling the noxious and deadly gas. Seven thousand German soldiers, wearing the most advanced gas masks then available, marched across a muddy no man's land littered with corpses to attack Osowiec Fortress. After the effective deployment of their chemical weapons the attacking Germans expected to meet little resistance. They couldn't have been more wrong.
Not only did the surviving Russian soldiers under the command of a Lieutenant Korlinsky defend themselves--they counterattacked! The Russians, with their heads wrapped in bandages like mummies, coughing up blood, and tearing at their own flesh to escape the pain of the burning chemicals charged at the advancing Germans before the walls of Osowiec fortress.
The sight of Russian soldiers draped in blood-soaked rags, stumbling towards them and haphazardly firing their weapons in all directions must have given them the appearance of an attacking army of zombies, hence the name history has given to the Battle of Osowiec Fortress "The Attack of the Dead Men". And for a time this attack caused panic in the German lines and halted their advance.

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nortex97 said:

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Somewhat tangentially related, the German Sharnhorst battlecruiser also sunk in (December) 1914 was only recently discovered off the Falkland Islands in 2019 I believe.

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Did you know that Michelangelo's David has heart-shaped pupils? ❤️ pic.twitter.com/B5LUEDWVBn

— Fascinating History (@Fascinate_Hist) August 12, 2025