Rakefet Cave

The Rakefet Cave is an archaeological site in the Carmel Mountains ; it is located in northern Israel and was discovered in 1956. In one of the chambers of this cave, concrete references to the production of beer and malt from wild wheat and barley species as well as traces of oats , pulses and flax were found.

Gravesites

A total of 29 skeletons were found in single and double graves. Four of the graves are dated to an age between 13,700 and 11,700 years. In addition to spring flowers, other plants such as sage , mint and figwort were also added . These are the oldest known burial places with floral grave decorations.

photos

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  Bedrock mortar for crushing the malt

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  View of the Rakefet valley

literature

• György Lengyel, Fanny Bocquentin: Burials of Raqefet Cave in the Context of the Late Natufian. In: Mitekufat Haeven: Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society (2005), pp. 271-284, JSTOR
• Li Liu et al .: Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting. In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , Volume 21 (2018), pp. 783–793, online
• Dani Nadel: A grid-like incised pattern inside a Natufian bedrock mortar, Raqefet Cave, Israel . In: Lithic Studies , Volume 3, No. 3 (2016)
• Dani Nadel et al .: Earliest floral grave lining from 13,700-11,700-y-old Natufian burials at Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel . In: PNAS . 110th year (2013), pp. 11774–11778

Web links

Commons : Rakefet Cave  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Researchers claim to have discovered the world's oldest brewery at spiegel.de (accessed October 4, 2018)
• Based on beer: Ancient alcohol production facility discovered in Israel. on zeit-online (accessed October 4, 2018)
• Melissa De Witte: New evidence supports the hypothesis that beer may have been motivation to cultivate cereals at Phys.org (accessed October 4, 2018)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.israelnetz.com/gesellschaft-kultur/wissenschaft/2018/09/14/aelteste-bierbrauerei-der-menschheit-in-israel-entdeck/
2. ↑ https://www.wissenschaft.de/geschichte-archaeologie/prost-in-der-steinzeit/
3. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X18303468?via%3Dihub
4. ↑ https://gartenakademie.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/floraler-grabschmuck-13-000-jahre-alt/