Shuqba cave is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
near the town of
Shuqba in the western
Judaean Mountains in the
Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate
The Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate ( ar, محافظة رام الله والبيرة ') is one of 16 governorates of Palestine. It covers a large part of the central West Bank, on the northern border of the Jerusalem Governorate. Its distri ...
of the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
.
Location
Shuqba cave is located on the northern bank of Wadi en-Natuf. This
wadi
Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water ...
is a kilometer south of the town of Shuqba, and runs west towards the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
coastal plain
A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...
. The town is 28 km northwest of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. This area is within the Judaean Mountains.
History of exploration
The site was briefly investigated in 1924 by Father
Alexis Mallon
Alexis Mallon (1875–1934), more commonly known as Père Mallon, was a French Jesuit priest and archaeologist. He founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and made important early contributions to the study of the prehistory of the ...
,
[Mallon, A. 1925. Quelques stations prehistoriques de Palestine, Melanges de l'Universite de Saint-Joseph 19: 191-2] who suggested that the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem take responsibility for excavating the cave. During the course of one season
Dorothy Garrod, with a team of local workers, placed a trench in the central chamber, as well as a small sounding in Chamber III.
[Garrod, D.A.E. 1928. Excavation of a Palaeolithic cave in western Judaea, Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund 60: 182-5.] She identified an archaeological sequence which included a Late "Levallois-Mousterian" layer. It also included a
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic ( Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymo ...
layer that she subsequently named
"Natufian". This was the first time that a Natufian layer had been found as part of a stratified deposit. This layer contained
charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ...
traces and a previously unknown
microlith
A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Th ...
ic
stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone A ...
industry characterized by crescent-shaped
lunate
Lunate is a crescent or moon-shaped microlith. In the specialized terminology of lithic reduction, a lunate flake is a small, crescent-shaped flake removed from a stone tool during the process of pressure flaking.
In the Natufian period, a lu ...
s. Garrod's team found worked bone objects. The fauna was dominated by
gazelle
A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...
, and also included the domestic
dog. The remains of 45 human skeletons, mostly fragmentary, allowed insights into a range of distinctive mortuary practices.
[Garrod, D.A.E. & D.M.A. Bate. 1942. Excavations at the cave of Shukbah, Palestine, 1928, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 8: 1-20.] Recent investigations have identified what are believed to be Neanderthal remains, together with Nubian Levallois knapping tools previously thought to be specific to homo sapiens.
[Ruth Schuster, , ]
'Neanderthals in West Bank Had 'Homo Sapiens' Technology ,'
Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...
16 February 2012
Related sites
Shuqba cave falls within the broader prehistoric landscape of the Wadi en-Natuf. While most of the lithic material in the immediate (1-km) survey area along the wadi's north bank is concentrated around the cave,
debitage
In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, bu ...
has been found at a small natural terrace 200 m south of the cave. Surface collection suggests that this material derives from the cave and from the 1928 spoil, the bulk of which has been washed down the slope. A terrace is visible today, but it was constructed as part of modern agricultural practices.
Recent developments
The area has been added to the 2013 UNESCO "tentative list" for possible designation as a World Heritage Site.
The Wadi en-Natuf and Shuqba Cave are currently under threat due to Israeli road building,
References
Bibliography
* (p. 196)
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