Kebara Cave ( he, מערת כבארה, Me'arat Kebbara, ar, مغارة الكبارة, Mugharat al-Kabara) is a
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
locality in Wadi Kebara, situated at
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
on the western
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...
of the
Carmel Range, in the
Ramat HaNadiv
Ramat Hanadiv ( he, רמת הנדיב, ''Heights of the Benefactor''), is a nature park and garden in northern Israel, covering at the southern end of Mount Carmel between Zikhron Ya'akov to the north and Binyamina to the south. The Jewish Nati ...
preserve of
Zichron Yaakov
Zikhron Ya'akov ( he, זִכְרוֹן יַעֲקֹב, ''lit.'' "Jacob's Memorial"; often shortened to just ''Zikhron'') is a town in Israel, south of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Carmel mounta ...
.
History
The cave was inhabited between 60,000 and 48,000
BP and is famous for its
excavated finds of
hominid
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
remains.
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod, CBE, FBA (5 May 1892 – 18 December 1968) was an English archaeologist who specialised in the Palaeolithic period. She held the position of Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1 ...
and
Francis Turville-Petre
Francis Adrian Joseph Turville-Petre (4 March 1901 – 16 August 1942) was a British archaeologist, famous for the discovery of the ''Homo heidelbergensis'' fossil Galilee Man in 1926, and for his work at Mount Carmel, in what was then the Briti ...
excavated in the cave in the early 1930s. Excavations have since yielded a large number of human remains associated with a
Mousterian
The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the latt ...
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
Kebara 2 (or Kebara Mousterian Hominid 2, KMH2) is a 60,000 year-old Levantine Neanderthal mid-body male skeleton. It was discovered in 1983 by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Baruch Arensburg, and Bernard Vandermeersch in a Mousterian layer of Kebara Cave, Isr ...
in 1982, the most complete postcranial Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
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 vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordata, ...
, ribs and pelvis
The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton).
The ...
). The cranium
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...
and most of the lower limbs were missing. The hyoid bone 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.
See also
* Archaeology in Israel
* List of fossil sites
This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there. Many of t ...
''(with link directory)''
* List of hominid fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
* List of notable fossils
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved i ...
* List of transitional fossils
This is a partial list of transitional fossils (fossil remains of groups that exhibit both "primitive" and derived traits). The fossils are listed in series, showing the transition from one group to another, representing significant steps in t ...
References
Further reading
* 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
''Current Anthropology'' is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax1907-1995. ''Current A ...
'' 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 Aca ...
'' 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
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 Aca ...
'' 32 (2005), pp. 475–484.
External links
Ramat Hanadiv
- the Rothschild Memorial public gardens at Ramat HaNadiv
Ramat Hanadiv ( he, רמת הנדיב, ''Heights of the Benefactor''), is a nature park and garden in northern Israel, covering at the southern end of Mount Carmel between Zikhron Ya'akov to the north and Binyamina to the south. The Jewish Nati ...
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