A new study suggests that a granite rock carved more than 35,000 years ago in a cave in Israel may be the oldest evidence of ritual practices in the Holy Land.
The grooves carved into the rock look very similar to the pattern on a turtle shell. While it’s unknown what the design meant, it’s possible that it was an ancient symbol of integration, according to study co-author Israel Hershkovitz, a physical anthropologist at Tel Aviv University.
In that case, it may be that the segments of the shell, known as “scutes,” represent specific groups of people who were integrated into ancient society, Hershkovitz told Live Science.
The ritual boulder was discovered deep within the Manot Cave in the Galilee region of northern Israel, where Hershkovitz has led excavations since 2010.
The cave was discovered in 2008 by construction workers and archaeological work initially included areas near the cave entrance where prehistoric people lived, performing activities such as shaping stone tools, butchering animals and eating, Hershkovitz said. But the team didn’t discover the ritual boulder deeper in the cave until 2013, he said.
“It was quite surprising, because we were focusing closer to the entrance, where there was more light and people were living,” he said. But “it was so dark and deep in there that we rarely went into that part.”
Turtle Rock
The chamber with the carved boulder was separated from the living areas behind a gallery of large stalagmites and stalactites, according to the study.
The granite boulder weighs more than 60 pounds (28 kilograms) and is a little less than a foot (30 centimeters) wide. It was discovered in a niche in the back wall of the chamber and was the only artifact found nearby.
The rock has deep grooves etched into its upper surface; the authors noted that the carving was made at about the same time as the oldest known cave painting in France.
Although there may be some older evidence of ritual practices by modern humans, such as the 40,000-year-old “lion man” stone figurine from a cave in Germany, the study noted that the stone in Manot Cave is the oldest evidence of ritual practices in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient cave
Examination of the ritual boulder suggests that the grooves were deliberately made with flint tools, while analysis of calcite crusts in some of the grooves suggests it dates to 35,000 to 37,000 years ago, according to the study published Dec. 9 in the journal PNAS.
This dating suggests that the carved boulder belongs to the Early Upper Paleolithic period, about 33,000 to 48,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers were adding new stone tools to much older technologies.
According to the study, wood ash particles found in the outer layers of stalactites and stalagmites within the boulder chamber indicate that it was likely illuminated by fire during ritual ceremonies. The researchers found that acoustic tests also revealed that the chamber was “suitable for community gatherings” because of its ease of conversation, speech and listening.
“Our data from Manot Cave confirm the existence of some early forms of collective ritual practices in the Early Upper Paleolithic period,” the authors wrote. “The existence of a ritual complex at Manot Cave is not surprising … [it] was a successful adaptive strategy to deal with the major demographic and economic challenges faced by human societies in the Upper Paleolithic.”
