Archaeologists uncover one of the oldest burial sites in Israel cave

Shoham, Israel (AP) – Archaeologists think they have found one of the oldest burial sites in the world in a cave in Israel, where the well -preserved remains of the first humans dating from some 100,000 years were carefully organized in pits.

The results of Tinshemet Cave in the center of Israel, published in a university review earlier this year, are based on previous discoveries in northern Israel and add to an increasing understanding of the origins of human burial.

The items found next to the remains that may have been used during ceremonies to honor the dead and could shed light on how our ancients have thought of spirituality and life after death.

“This is an incredible revolutionary innovation for our species,” said Yosssi Zaidner, one of the directors of the excavation in barrels and professor of archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “It is actually the first time that we have started using this behavior.”

Archaeologists working in Tinshemet since 2016 have discovered the remains of the first five humans which date back to around 110,000 to 100,000 years, according to various technologies.

The skeletons were discovered in foster and carefully arranged in a fetal position, known as the funeral position, said Zaidner. Many have been found with objects, such as basalt stones, animal remains or ocher fragments, a reddish pigment made from iron -rich rocks.

These objects, some from hundreds of kilometers (miles), had no practical use known for daily life, so experts think they were part of rituals intended to honor the dead.

A window on early human burials

Tidshemet Cave is a black oblique bar in the center of the Israel hills filled with grinking fruit bats. Inside and around the cave is an unpretentious stone mound that Zaidner calls “one of the three or four most important sites for the study of human evolution and behavior during the Paleolithic period”.

The Paleolithic era, also known as the Stone Age due to the start of stone tools, lasted for 3.3 million years until about 10,000 years ago. The Tinshemet cave is from the average Paleolithic era, about 250,000 and 30,000 years old.

Some of the basic results of Tinshememet researchers were published in March in Nature Behavior Human Behavior. A key discovery was the remains of the first five humans, including two complete skeletons and three isolated skulls with other bones and teeth. It is also necessary to note more than 500 fragments of different size of red and orange ocher, a pigment created by heating the wealthy stones at a certain temperature – proof that the first humans had the means to create decorative objects.

“Here we see a set of really complex behaviors, not linked to food and survival,” said Zaidner.

Using hand scissors and delicate pneumatic exercises the size of a pen that resemble dental tools, archaeologists will need several years to search the site. The field work, which started in 2016, is generally done during the summer months. This year, a dozen undergraduate students in archeology and graduates moved to the site, documenting and carefully deleting each fragment of tool, object or bone.

At the entrance to the cave, the skull of one of the first humans slowly emerges from the rocky sediments; It will take years before it is fully searched.

Tinshemet is exceptionally important for archaeologists because the local climate has preserved bones, tools and ornaments in good condition, unlike many other parts of the world where these elements have been lost by time, said Christian Tryon, professor at the University of Connecticut and research partner in the Human Origins program at Smithsonian Institution, which was not involved in the study.

The skeletons and objects were so well preserved due to the ashes of frequent fires, probably for rituals. This large quantity of ash mixed with the precipitation and the acidic limestone of Israel, creating optimal conditions for persevered. A skeleton was in such good condition that archaeologists could see how the fingers were intertwined, hands attached under the head.

A window over a little -known period

Tryon said that Tinshemet’s results strengthen discoveries earlier from two similar burial sites dating from the same period in northern Israel – Skhul Cave and Qafzeh Cave. Skhul Cave was excavated almost 100 years ago, and the Qafzeh cave especially 50 years ago, when archaeological practices were more random.

“There were so many uncertainties with these sites, but it confirms that it is a model that we know, and they really nail the dates,” said Tryon.

Tidshemet helped archaeologists to conclude that burial practices began to spread at that time, which represents a change in the way the first humans treated their dead.

Some archaeologists believe that intentional burials began earlier. In South Africa, Homo Naledi species – an old cousin of Homo Sapiens – Perhaps intentionally placed their death In the caves 200,000 years ago. But many archaeologists have said that the results are controversial and that there is not enough evidence to support the demand for intentional burials.

A bridge between peoples

In ancient times, Israel was a bridge between European Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens of Africa. Archaeologists have identified other subgroups of early humans in the region and believe that groups have interacted and may have committed.

Experts have been studying the two complete skeletons brought from Tinshemet for years, but it is still not clear if they were Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens, a hybrid population or another group.

The mixture of sub-groups has created opportunities for different groups of early humans to exchange knowledge or express an identity, said Zaidner. It was at this time that archaeologists first saw examples of jewelry or body painting, which could be means that the first humans began outwards belonging to a certain group, tracing borders between “we” and “them”, he said.

Israel Hershkovitz, physical anthropologist at the University of Tel Aviv and co -director of the Tinshemet site, said that the concept of cemeteries in prehistoric life is important because it symbolizes “a kind of territory”.

He said that the same type of claim on land where the ancestors are buried still resonates in the region. “It is a kind of claim that you make to the neighbors, saying” it is my territory, this part of the earth belongs to my father and my ancestor “and so on.”