Kebara Cave

Kebara Cave (Hebrew: מערת כבארה, romanized: Me'arat Kebbara, Arabic: مغارة الكبارة, romanized: Mugharat al-Kabara) is a limestone cave locality in Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 to 65 m (197 to 213 ft) above sea level on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, in the Ramat HaNadiv preserve of Zichron Yaakov.[1]

Kebara Cave
Kebara 2 in situ
Map showing the location of Kebara Cave
Map showing the location of Kebara Cave
Map showing the location of Kebara Cave
Map showing the location of Kebara Cave
LocationZikhron Ya'akov, Israel
Coordinates32°33′29.8″N 34°56′14.3″E
Elevation60 to 65 m (197 to 213 ft) above sea level
DiscoveryEarly 1930s
GeologyLimestone

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).[2]

The most significant discovery made at Kebara Cave was Kebara 2 in 1982, the most complete postcranial Neanderthal skeleton 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, ribs and pelvis). The cranium and most of the lower limbs were missing. The hyoid bone was also preserved, and was the first Neanderthal hyoid bone found.[3]

The Kebaran culture is named after the site.

See also

References
  1. "map" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-10. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  2. New human remains from Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel
  3. Mithen, S.(2006). The Singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind, and body. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

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 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 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 32 (2005), pp. 475–484.
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