Kebara Cave
Encyclopedia
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
on the western escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
of the Carmel Range
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
, some 10km north-east of Caesarea. The cave was inhabited between 60,000 - 48,000 BP
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
and is famous for its excavated finds of hominid remains, made under the direction of Professor Ofer Bar-Yosef
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Ofer Bar-Yosef is an Israeli archaeologist whose main field of study has been the Palaeolithic period.He was Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the institution where he originally studied archaeology at undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the 1960s...
.
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod CBE was a British archaeologist who was the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair, partly through her pioneering work on the Palaeolithic period. Her father was Sir Archibald Garrod, the physician.-Life:Born in Oxford, she attended Newnham College, Cambridge...
and Francis Turville-Petre
Francis Turville-Petre
Francis Adrian Joseph Turville-Petre was a British archaeologist, famous for the discovery of the Neanderthal Galilee Man in 1925 and his work at Mount Carmel, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine, now Israel. He was a close friend of Christopher Isherwood and W. H...
excavated in the cave in the early 1930s, but by far the most significant discovery made at Kebara Cave was that in 1982 of the most complete Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
found to date. Nicknamed "Moshe" and dating to circa 60,000 BP
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
, the skeleton preserved a large part of one individual's torso (vertebral column
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
, rib
Rib
In vertebrate anatomy, ribs are the long curved bones which form the rib cage. In most vertebrates, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the chest cavity. They serve to protect the lungs, heart, and other internal organs of the thorax...
s and pelvis
Pelvis
In human anatomy, the pelvis is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the lower limbs .The pelvis includes several structures:...
). The cranium
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
and most of the lower limbs were missing. The hyoid bone
Hyoid bone
The hyoid bone is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies at the level of the base of the mandible in the front and the third cervical vertebra behind.Unlike other bones, the hyoid is only distantly...
was also preserved, and was the first Neanderthal hyoid bone found.
The Kebaran
Kebaran
The Kebaran or Kebarian culture was an archaeological culture in the eastern Mediterranean area , named after its type site, Kebara Cave south of Haifa...
culture is named after the site.
See also
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of hominid fossils
- List of transitional fossils
- List of notable fossils
Further reading
Selected bibliography, in order of publication:- Schick, T. & Stekelis, M. "Mousterian Assemblages in Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel", Eretz-Israel 13 (1977), pp.97-150.
- Bar-Yosef, O. & B. Vandermeersch, et alii, "The Excavations in Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel", Current AnthropologyCurrent AnthropologyCurrent Anthropology is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax...
33.5 (1992), pp.497-546. - Goldberg, P. & Bar-Yosef, O., "Site formation processes in Kebara and Hayonim Caves and their significance in Levantine Prehistoric caves", in T. Akazawa, K. Aoki and O. Bar-Yosef (eds), Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, New York & London: Plenum Press, 1998, pp.?
- Albert, Rosa M., Steve Weiner, Ofer Bar-Yosef, and Liliane Meignen, "Phytoliths of the Middle Palaeolithic Deposits of Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel: Study of the Plant Materials Used for Fuel and Other Purposes", Journal of Archaeological Science 27 (2000), pp.931-947.
- Lev, Efraim, Kislev, Mordechai E. & Bar-Yosef, Ofer, "Mousterian Vegetal Food in Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel", Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (2005), pp.475–484.
External links
- Ramat Hanadiv - the Rothschild Memorial public gardens at Ramat HaNadivRamat HaNadivRamat HaNadiv is a nature park and gardens in northern Israel, covering 4.5 kilometers at the southern end of Mount Carmel between Zichron Ya'akov to the north and Binyamina to the south...
preserve the Kebara Cave within their boundaries for visitors - Kebara Cave at About.com