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
Neanderthalskeleton 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]
^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.
External links
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