An ancient ritual site has been revealed in the deepest, darkest part of a cave in what is now northern Israel.
homo sapiens Around 37,000 years ago, some groups gathered in caves to perform torch-lighting rituals, perhaps inspired by myths and religious beliefs, researchers reported Dec. 9. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The discovery of this special room in Manot Cave reveals Earliest known evidence of collective ritual practices in the Middle Eastsays Omri Barzilai, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa. They estimate the space can accommodate up to about 100 people.
The ceremonial facilities at Mano Cave are similar to even older cave chambers discovered in France. Neanderthals built a circular structure from broken rock formations in Bruniquel Cave about 176,500 years ago, but it’s unclear what activities took place there (SN: May 25, 2016). European Neanderthals and homo sapiens Over 40,000 years ago people also drew and painted on cave walls (SN: 1/27/23).
“The obvious concern about creating a bounded space deep inside the cave is shared.” [by Middle Eastern H. sapiens] Neanderthals and early homo sapiens in Europe,” says archaeologist Paul Pettit of Durham University in the UK. Pettit suggests that non-daily activities, such as rituals involving local groups of hunter-gatherers, may have taken place in the caves before anyone decorated the walls.
Stone tools, butchered animal bones, and other items were previously excavated at various locations near the entrance to Manot Cave, about 46,000 to 33,000 years ago, as gateways to normal human occupation. This includes the period when mass rituals were performed deep within the cave. Previous fossils were discovered homo sapiens In this cave at least 50,000 years ago (SN: 1/28/15).
Activities in the ceremonial rooms date back to a time when artifacts in the living areas showed the influence of Europe’s ancient Aurignacian culture. Distinctive stone tools, bone points, ivory beads and figurines, and early examples of cave art characterize the Aurignac group. “The Mano Cave ritual site is thought to be related to the Aurignacian population that arrived from Europe and reflects an established ritual tradition,” Barzilai said.
The excellent natural acoustics made the cave space a perfect place to hold a group ceremony, he added.
A series of slender natural rocks rising from the cave floor protects just outside Manot Cave’s back chamber. According to Barzilai, a round rock placed in a niche just inside the room displays carved lines that create a three-dimensional representation of a turtle’s shell. Microscopic marks on the inside of the V-shaped groove indicate that someone used a sharp stone to carve it into the rock.
Barzilai suspects that mass rituals at Manot Cave revolved around replicas of turtle shells. The spiritual meaning of turtles is still unknown to the ancient Middle Easterners, who collected slow-moving creatures to supplement their diet. However, near the end of the Stone Age, turtle shells increasingly appeared on the graves of prominent figures in the region (SN: November 3, 2008).
Barzilai’s group calculated the minimum estimated age of the sculptures by analyzing the rate of decay of radioactive uranium in the thin mineral crust that formed above the rock. Researchers are currently debating the accuracy of this method in dating cave paintings (SN: 10/28/19). The chemical composition of the mineral crust closely matches that of previously dated rock layers within the cave, allowing us to narrow down the estimated age to approximately 37,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Mineral layers formed on deer antlers found on the floor of the room date from about the same time period. Researchers observed several small, human-made notches in the corners.
Particles of wood ash were detected in the rock formations within the room, indicating that visitors had been lighting up the pitch-black space with torches. Investigators found no remains of the fire.
