Hayonim cave

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Hayonim cave

Hayonim cave

Hayonim cave
Location: Israel
Height : 250  m
Geographical
location: 		32 ° 55 '24.6 "  N , 35 ° 13' 1.9"  E Coordinates: 32 ° 55 '24.6 "  N , 35 ° 13' 1.9"  E
Hayonim Cave (Israel)
Hayonim cave
Particularities: fossil Homo sapiens finds

The Hayonim Cave ( Hebrew מערת היונים, German Tauben-Höhle) is an archaeological and palaeoanthropological site in a limestone rock about 250 meters above sea level in the Upper Galilee , Israel .

geography

Hayonim Cave is about 1.2 kilometers north of Road No. 85 and the Akkon - Karmiel railway line in the Upper Galilee. It is located in Wadi Meged about 2 kilometers southeast of Kibbutz Pelech, 4 kilometers east of the Jewish settlement Tal-El and 4 kilometers west of the Arab settlement of Majd al-Krum. The Hayonim Cave is located on the northwest slope of the 324 meter high Har Gamal, 13 kilometers east of Acre and the Mediterranean coast .

Woman's basin decorated with fox teeth, Natufien , 12500-9500 BC BC, Hayonim Cave
Ribbed beef dagger of the Natufien culture

Description of the cave

The Hayonim Cave is located in a Cenomanium layer. It consists of two intact and two eroded karst halls. A fifth hall is indicated by rockfall scars and breccia stains. The eroded halls contain brecciated prehistoric debris and Mousterian artifacts .

In a hall excavations were carried out on an area of ​​150 m². In front of the hall, two terraces are artificially created, which reach down to the valley floor, these are planted with olive trees. The upper two terraces contain geometrical stone tools from the kebaria . There is also a large site with finds from the Natufia , called the Hayonim Terrace. Next there were pottery and Neolithic material excavated.

Excavation and exploration of the cave

Several well-known scientists were involved in the excavations and exploration of the Hayonim Cave, including Mary C. Stiner , Paul Goldberg , Ofer Bar-Yosef , Baruch Arensburg , Anna Belfer-Cohen , Eitan Tchernov , Naama Goren-Inbar , Erella Hovers .

stratigraphy

The excavations in the Hayonim Cave in the years 1965 to 1971, 1974 to 1979 and 1992 to 2000 exposed the following layers:

Timeline for archaeological finds
in the caves of Northern Israel
Old Paleolithic 1,600,000–200,000 BC Chr.
Acheuleans 550,000-175,000 BC Chr.
Middle Paleolithic 300,000-40,000 BC Chr.
Acheuléen-Jabrudien 400,000-100,000 BC Chr.
Moustérien 220,000–35,000 BC Chr.
Amudia 130,000–35,000 BC Chr.
Upper Paleolithic 40,000-17,000 BC Chr.
Aurignacia 35,000-17,000 BC Chr.
Epipalaeolithic 22,000-9,500 BC Chr.
Kebaria 22,000-10,500 BC Chr.
Natufien 14,000-8,500 BC Chr.
Neolithic 9,500-3,300 BC Chr.
Pre-ceramic Neolithic 9,500-6,400 BC Chr.
PPNA 9,500-8,800 BC Chr.
PPNB 8,800-7,000 BC Chr.
The times indicated depend on the region.
You are referring here specifically to Israel

Layer A

Layer A dates from the first 6 centuries AD. In it found Byzantine shards and a Roman coin from the 2nd century confirm this dating. The cave was mainly used by shepherds in winter from the 7th century to the present day. The accumulated layers of manure were regularly burned, resulting in a 3 m thick layer of ash.

Layer B, Natufien

The material of layer B belongs to the Natufian culture. It is roughly 11,000 to 14,000 years old. The age was determined on seeds using the radiocarbon method and typologically on the basis of stone tools found .

Layer B is 0.1 to 1.2 meters thick. It shows five phases of settlement. The main settlement phase was in the early Natufien.

In the immediate vicinity of the cave, round and oval rooms made of unworked stones were found. These rooms were 2 to 2.5 meters in diameter. They were surrounded by a 1 meter thick wall, which has been preserved up to heights of 0.6 to 0.7 meters. They did not have a defined entrance and their floor was paved. Some contained fire pits. The function of these rooms is not assigned. Their small diameter contradicts their use as normal living space. They were used several times, partly as a workshop for the production of bone tools. During the 2nd century they were filled with rubble and leveled.

Several graves were found. Some were decorated and provided with jewelry and bone tools as grave goods . In the late Natufien, the cave probably served as a cemetery. The almost complete remains of two dogs were discovered in one of the graves . They were about 11,000 years old. This suggests that even at that time dogs and humans were living together in one household.

Three depot finds were discovered on the northern wall . One contained several ram from basalt , a second semi-processed beef ribs and the third blow stones of quartzite and large quantities of materials produced from teeth beads.

In layer B, tools made of basalt and limestone typical of the Natufien were found: mortars , pestles, grinding stones , whetstones , shank straighteners and other stone and bone tools. Likewise, pieces of jewelry typical of the Natufien were found. Pearls made from bone material were particularly common.

Layer B contained the remains of many different animals that were collected by humans and brought into the cave. The main part was made up of real gazelles , especially young animals. In addition, there were thighed tortoise , hare, chukar , red fox , fallow deer , red deer , roe deer , wild boar , birds of prey .

The variety of species, the large number of young and small animals, especially birds and hares that are difficult to catch, distinguish the Natufien from the Kebarians , Aurignacians and Moustérien . The difference between early and late natufias is the increase in turtles and the decrease in fowl and rabbits. These changes indicate a decrease in population density.

Layer C, kebaria

The material of layer C belongs to the Kebarian culture, it is approximately 18,000 to 22,000 years old. No datable material was found. The age was determined typologically on the basis of stone tools found and a comparison with other sites.

Layer C is approximately 2.5 m thick. The finds are embedded in a loose mass of bone-rich, granular reddish silt and clay . Part of the mass is stuck together with calcite and mixed with deposits from the destroyed mousse layer.

During this time the cave was temporarily inhabited, especially in summer. Among the microliths found were curved, retouched blades.

Layer D, aurignacia

The material of layer D belongs to the culture of the Aurignacien. It is roughly 27,000 to 34,000 years old. The age was determined with the radiocarbon method and typologically on the basis of stone tools found.

Layer D is 35 cm to 55 cm thick. It is divided into layers D1 to D4. Layer D is located centrally in a sunken basin. It consists of a layer of ash that contains numerous animal bones and some fire pits in layer D4. It shows several phases of settlement with a variety of activities. A large amount of various worked stones and animal bones were found. The stone tools found are typical of the Aurignacia. A small stone slab with an engraved horse and stones colored with ocher were found. The stone tools characteristic: Kiel scraper and nose scrapers, Aurignacian blades Dufour bladelets, Endschaber and graver . Among the bone tools were awls , bone needles , bone tips , spatulas , worked antlers and horn pendants. The animal remains found come mainly from gazelles, less from fallow deer, deer, pigs, wild goats, wolves, and rarely from hares.

Layer E, Moustérien

The material of layer E belongs to the culture of the Mousterian, it is approximately 130,000 to 220,000 years old. The age of the layer was determined using thermoluminescence dating and electron spin resonance .

Layer E is 5 m thick and has been divided into an upper and a lower half. The upper layer is of the Tabun-C type, the lower one of the Tabun-D type.

Layer E contains ash, remains of fireplaces and charred organic material, and there were large amounts of bones on its eastern and western edges.

The lower part of this layer contained elongated, often retouched blades and burins and short, often triangular Levallois points .

Layer F, Moustérien

Layer F was only exposed at the cave entrance. It consists of diagenetically modified clay, silicates and quartz silt. It contains some burned spots and pieces of coal. Very few bones are preserved in this layer. It is criss-crossed with rodent burrows . The mousse technique found was of the Tabun-D type. Layer F, like layer E, contained elongated, often retouched blades and burins and short, often triangular Levallois points.

The age of layer F was determined using thermoluminescence dating and electron spin resonance; its age is between 200,000 and 250,000 years.

During this time, the inhabitants of the cave hunted larger ungulates and turtles, the bones of which were found in the cave, including noticeably few parts of the spine .

Layer G, Acheuléen-Jabrudien

Layer G was only partially excavated. The bedrock was not reached. The upper part of Layer G is a hard, gritty silt, rich in layered seed coats. Underneath were brown mottled and yellow-brown silt and seed coats.

The stone tools found are typical of the Acheuléen-Jabrudien.

The Acheuléen-Jabrudien (also: Mugharan Tradition) lies between Acheuléen and Moustérien at the end of the Old Paleolithic . Its sites are in the Levant . It comes about in the period from 400,000 years to 100,000 years BC. BC before. Characteristic stone tools are scrapers, hand axes, blades, and tools with blades. The main sites include the Tabun Cave, the Qesem Cave and the Jamal Cave in Nahal Me'arot and the Misliya Cave .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hayonim Cave  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Ofer Bar-Yosef , Baruch Arensburg , Anna Belfer-Cohen, Paul Goldberg , Liliane Meignen, Mary C. Stiner , Natalie D. Munro, Stephen Weiner: Hayonim Cave in Part III: Archeology of Human Evolution , pp. 231–240, 2017, Cambridge University Press, doi : 10.1017 / 9781316106754.026 online as a pdf .
  2. ↑ Hayonim Cave at d-nb.info. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  3. ↑ Hayonim Cave at openstreetmap.org. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  4. ↑ Two New Dogs, and Other Natufian Dogs, from the Southern Levant at sciencedirect.com. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  5. ↑ Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel at nature.com. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  6. ↑ The Acheulo-Yabrudian - Early Middle Paleolithic Sequence of Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel at researchgate.net. Retrieved June 19, 2021.