Cookie Consent by Cookie Consent by TermsFeed
 
Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation - Latest News

Natufian burial rituals revealed

Wednesday 06 July 2016
Share on Facebook

An article provided by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on phys.org - Reconstruction of 12,000 year old funeral feast brings ancient burial rituals to life - reports on the 12,000 year old grave inside a cave in northern Israel.

Cave reveals ancient burial rituals

Hebrew University archaeologists uncover 12,000 year old grave inside a cave in northern Israel. Imaget: Naftali Hilger

'The woman was laid on a bed of specially selected materials, including gazelle horn cores, fragments of chalk, fresh clay, limestone blocks and sediment. Tortoise shells were placed under and around her body, 86 in total. Sea shells, an eagle's wing, a leopard's pelvis, a forearm of a wild boar and even a human foot were placed on the body of the mysterious 1.5 meter-tall woman. Atop her body, a large stone was laid to seal the burial space'.

The grave was discovered by a Hebrew University archeologist in the cave site on the bank of the Hilazon river in the western Galilee region of northern Israel in 2008. Three other grave pits have been found at the site of Hilazon Tachtit since 1995, and most contained bones of several humans. But it is the grave that points to the uniqueness of the event and the woman at its center.

View of Hilazon Tachtit cave in northern Israel. Image: Leore Grosman

Eight years after the discovery, Prof. Leore Grosman from the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Natalie Munro from the University of Connecticut, have identified the sequence of events of the mysterious funeral ritual that took place 12,000 years ago.

Based on field notes, digitized maps, stones, architecture and artifact frequency distributions and concentrations, they believe this was the grave of an unusual woman, probably a shaman. They have identified six stages of a funerary ritual.

 
Article continues below
 


The research was published in the journal Current Anthropology

Leore Grosman et al, A Natufian Ritual Event, Current Anthropology (2016). DOI: 10.1086/686563
Abstract
Ritual practice plays crucial social roles in human societies by communicating information about social status, calming tensions, and integrating communities. Although communication occurs through the act of ritual performance itself, the archaeological record rarely has the resolution to identify individual ritual actions. The high quality of preservation and recovery of a well-preserved grave of an unusual woman at the Late Natufian (12,000 cal BP) site of Hilazon Tachtit, Israel, enables the identification of multiple stages of a funerary ritual. These represent a variety of actions that allow glimpses into ritual performance as well as larger generalizations about Natufian ritual practice during this dynamic period at the beginning of the agricultural transition.

The paper details the order of the six-step sequence and its ritual and ideological importance for the people who enacted it:

1. Excavation of an oval grave pit in the cave floor. 

2. A layer of objects was cached between large stones, including seashells, a broken basalt palette, red ochre, chalk, and several complete tortoise shells. 

3. These were covered by a layer of sediment containing ashes, and garbage composed of flint and animal bones. 

4. About halfway through the ritual, the woman was laid inside the pit in a child-bearing position, and special items including many more tortoise shells were placed on top of and around her. 

5. This was followed by another layer of filling and limestones of various sizes that were placed directly on the body. 

6. The ritual concluded with the sealing of the grave with a large, heavy stone.

Ancient burial rituals

Bones of a mysterious 1.5 meter-tall woman lay in burial site, surrounded by tortoise shells and other objects. Image: Naftali Hilger

Moreover, a wide range of activities took place in preparation for the funerary event. This included the collection of materials required for grave construction, and the capture and preparation of animals for the feast, particularly the 86 tortoises, which must have been time-consuming.

The study of funerary ritual in the archaeological record becomes possible only after humans began to routinely bury their dead in archaeologically visible locations. The Natufian period (15,000-11,500 years ago) in the southern Levant marks an increase in the frequency and concentration of human burials.

The researchers added that the remnants of a ritual event at this site provide a rare opportunity to reconstruct the dynamics of ritual performance at a time when funerary ritual was becoming an increasingly important social mediator at a crucial juncture deep in human history. The Late Natufian funerary event in Hilazon Tachtit Cave in northern Israel in particular provides strong evidence for community engagement in ritual practice, and its analysis contributes to the growing picture of social complexity in the Natufian period as a predecessor for increasingly public ritual and social transformations in the early Neolithic period that follows.

The unprecedented scale and extent of social change in the Natufian, especially in terms of ritual activities, make this period central to current debates regarding the origin and significance of social and ritual processes in the agricultural transition.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/

COMMENTS

 
Archaeology
Friday 30 June 2023
Thursday 06 April 2023
Thursday 24 November 2022
Tuesday 27 September 2022
Tuesday 19 July 2022
Monday 16 August 2021
Thursday 06 May 2021
Tuesday 16 March 2021
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
If you have enjoyed visiting this website
please consider adding a link © Bradshaw Foundation
 
 
ROCK ART NETWORK
Rock Art Network Bradshaw Foundation Getty Conservation Institute
ARCHAEOLOGY
Bradshaw Foundation Donate Friends
Support our work & become a
Friend of the Foundation
 
 
Bradshaw Foundation Facebook
 
Bradshaw Foundation YouTube
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store