Kebara Cave (, ) is a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

locality in Wadi Kebara, situated at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, in the Ramat HaNadiv preserve of Zichron Yaakov.

History

The cave was inhabited between 60,000 and 48,000 BP and is famous for its excavated finds of hominid remains. Dorothy Garrod and Francis Turville-Petre excavated in the cave in the early 1930s. Excavations have since yielded a large number of human remains associated with a Mousterian archaeological context. The first specimen discovered in 1965, during the excavations of M. Stekelis, was an incomplete infant skeleton (Kebara 1).New human remains from Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel
/ref> The most significant discovery made at Kebara Cave was Kebara 2 in 1982, the most complete postcranial

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

found to date. Nicknamed "Moshe" and dating to ''circa'' 60,000 BP, the skeleton preserved a large part of one individual's torso (

vertebral column The spinal column, also known as the vertebral column, spine or backbone, is the core part of the axial skeleton in vertebrates. The vertebral column is the defining and eponymous characteristic of the vertebrate. The spinal column is a segmente ...

, ribs and

pelvis The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an Anatomy, anatomical Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also c ...

). The cranium and most of the lower limbs were missing. The

hyoid bone The hyoid-bone (lingual-bone or tongue-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 between the base of the mandible and the third cervical verte ...

was also preserved, and was the first Neanderthal hyoid bone found. Mithen, S.(2006). The Singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind, and body. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. The Kebaran culture is named after the site.

References

* 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 Anthropology'' 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 The ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers "the development and application of scientific techniques and methodologies to all areas of archaeology". The journal was established in 1974 by Acad ...

'' 27 (2000), pp. 931–947. * Lev, Efraim, Kislev, Mordechai E. & Bar-Yosef, Ofer, "Mousterian Vegetal Food in Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel", ''

'' 32 (2005), pp. 475–484.

External links

Ramat Hanadiv
- the Rothschild Memorial public gardens at Ramat HaNadiv preserve the Kebara Cave within their boundaries for visitors
Kebara Cave
at About.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kebara 1930s archaeological discoveries Caves of Israel Neanderthal sites Prehistoric sites in Israel Archaeological type sites Mount Carmel Mousterian Kebaran culture

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links