Manot Cave

Manot Cave: Stalactites and stalagmites form a column

Manot Cave is situated in Western Galilee, about 10 km north of HaYonim Cave and 50 km northeast of Mt. Carmel. It was discovered accidentally during a construction work in 2008 when a bulldozer struck open its roof.[7] Experts from the Cave Research Unit of Hebrew University of Jerusalem immediately made the initial survey. Important finds were stone tools, charcoal pieces, and human remains. The tools consisted of a Levallois point, burins, bladelets, overpassed blades, and Aurignacian tools such as nosed and carinated endscrapers. There were also remains of "fallow deer, red deer, mountain gazelle, horse, aurochs, hyena, and bear".[2] The major find was an almost complete human skull. The finds were reported to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which granted another survey. Ofer Marder and H. Khalaily made the survey and found that it was a rich archaeological site. Recognising its importance, the IAA granted a full-scale excavation in 2010. For three weeks the site was excavated by a collaboration of archaeologists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Geological Survey of Israel, Zinman Institute of Archaeology of University of Haifa, Kimmel Center for Archaeological Sciences of Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Department of Archaeology of Boston University.[2]

Map of Manot Cave with the areas of excavation

The Manot Cave consists of a lengthy hall, 80 m long and between 10m and 25m wide. Two lower chambers are connected to it from north and south. It is possible that the main entrances were at both the eastern and western ends. The cave has active stalagmite formations. Archaeological remains indicate that the most recent artifacts belong to the Early Palaeolithic period. This further indicates that the cave had been completely sealed for at least 15,000 years. The blockage was probably due to rock falls and active stalagmites at the main entrances.[2]

Archaeologists have offered the following chronology for the cave, based on radiocarbon dating: an Early Ahmarian phase (46,000–42,000 BP), a Levantine Aurignacian phase (38,000–34,000 BP), and a post-Levantine Aurignacian phase (34,000–33,000 BP).[1]

The most important find in the cave is a partial skullcap of a modern human, referred to by archaeologists as Manot 1. The specimen is estimated (using uranium–thorium dating) to be 54,700 years old.[3] It shows that modern humans lived together with another human species, the Neanderthals, in the Levant. This could support the notion that these two species had interbred, as evidenced by genome sequencing.[8][9]

• Kebara Cave
• Ksar Akil