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This paper focuses on new findings from Middle Paleolithic Geula Cave, Israel, located in the northern part of Mt. Carmel. The cave, consists of several small chambers that are remnants of a larger cave system, initially excavated between 1958 and 1964. The occupation at the cave was ascribed to Middle Paleolithic modern humans. In 2016, a salvage excavation was conducted in areas of the cave that were not previously explored. Analyses of the new excavation revealed a consistency in lithic technology throughout the new excavation areas, with an emphasis on Levallois production using mainly bidirectional and centripetal core preparation modes. The faunal study identified intensive hyena and porcupine activities in small chambers, probably at the back part of the cave, while fractured bones in association with flint artifacts were found at what appears as the living area in the cave. Luminescence ages indicated that Geula Cave was occupied as early as 175 ka, but that the major occupation was from 120 to 100 ka. The major occupation at Geula chronologically overlaps with the Skhul and Qafzeh Caves thus reinforcing the notion that Homo sapiens dominated the southern Levant during early MIS 5. This study demonstrates the importance of reinvestigating and reevaluating past excavated prehistoric sites and their contents to enhance our understanding of the regional, cultural and biological history.

Routine quarrying activity at the Nesher-Ramla Quarry, in the Judean Lowlands, Israel, has recently exposed a new Early Holocene archaeological site located in a small natural sinkhole, one of many dolines scattered in the area, dated to the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB). It is the first site of this period to be uncovered in the narrow strip of land between the Judean Mts. and the coastal plain. This site, dubbed NRQN, contains lithic artifacts, groundstone tools, shells and beads as well as botanical and faunal remains. Here we combine data from a series of studies on the site's stratigraphy and radiometric dating, paleoenvironment, sediments and material culture, with the aim of understanding the role of the site in the EPPNB sphere. Various human activities took place in or immediately adjacent to the sinkhole, predominantly domestic in nature, including stone-tool making and food consumption. However, some of the sediments deep within the sinkhole underwent intense in situ combustion, possibly associated with episodes of lime-plaster production. The filling of the sinkhole appears to have occurred rapidly, not exceeding a few hundred years (ca. 10,500–10,300 cal. BP) and was driven by both geogenic and anthropogenic sedimentation processes. Good preservation of microvertebrate, macrovertebrae, short-lived plants and wood remains at the site, provides a unique opportunity to study the environmental characteristics of this geographical area during the Early Holocene, which appears to have been of an open grassy landscape with patchy Mediterranean forest, resembling the current environmental conditions. Studying the characteristics of Early Holocene human activity at the site, its paleoenvironment, and the site formation mechanisms, also provides useful comparisons with the nearby NRQ Middle Paleolithic site (this issue).

The Ayyalon - Nesher Ramla (ANR) system combines hypogenic karst with endemic subterranean fauna. The unique faunal assemblage utilizes chemosynthetic food web based upon H2S within the ascending plumes of hydrothermal water. We attempt to constrain the regional biogeography and the age of the hypogene system using subterranean extant ‘living fossils’, combined with related taxa in the Dead Sea Rift and Mediterranean, as well as geological evidence and previously published molecular phylogenetic data. The molecular evidence of Typhlocaris ayyaloni and T. salentina suggested that ANR aquatic system age is > 5.8 Ma. Evidence from Dead Sea Rift and East Mediterranean biogeographic evolution of aquatic fauna indicates isolation of the rift water bodies from the Mediterranean ~7 Ma. The high endemism of terrestrial troglobites at Ayyalon - Nesher Ramla caves indicate longer isolation age, most probably ~14 Ma – the end of the last transgression which inundated the lower Shefela region. We show that the Ayyalon terrestrial fauna of tropical origin invaded the subsurface warm, humid, and food-rich habitat, escaping middle Miocene surface aridization. Shefela sinkholes preserving middle Miocene sediments share similar features with Nesher Ramla sinkholes, suggesting that they share the same formation processes ~14 Ma, and implying a minimum age of the sulfidic hypogenic aquifer.

El-Janab Cave (‘Usarin Cave) is a large karst system located about 11 km south of Shechem (Nablus) in Central Samaria. It comprises a series of large chambers connected by narrow passages that developed as a hypogenic cave in Upper-Cenomanian dolomite. During 2017–2018, we mapped and surveyed the cave, retrieving archaeological finds from various periods, including the Late Chalcolithic, early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age I, Iron Age II, Persian, early Hellenistic, Early Roman, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. It seems that the cave’s geographical and morphological features—its location in an open but settled landscape and its complex structure of passages leading to spacious chambers—attracted distinct human activities in several periods. In some phases, it was used as a refuge in turbulent times. In this paper, we present the archeological assemblages from the cave and discuss their interpretation and association with the history of the area.

The site of Tell el-Hawy is located above the confluence of the Rukkad and Yarmuk Rivers, near Israel’s present-day borders with Syria and Jordan. A survey revealed ancient remains on the hilltop and slopes dating mainly from the Iron Age, Late Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Twenty caves were found, including a large burial cave with loculi. The finds from the survey, as well as the caves, are described. The location of the site and its function are also discussed.

32 páginas.- 3 figuras.- 2 tablas.- 260 referencias, Nearly half a century ago, two papers postulated the likelihood of lunar lava tube caves using mathematical models. Today, armed with an array of orbiting and fly-by satellites and survey instrumentation, we have now acquired cave data across our solar system-including the identification of potential cave entrances on the Moon, Mars, and at least nine other planetary bodies. These discoveries gave rise to the study of planetary caves. To help advance this field, we leveraged the expertise of an interdisciplinary group to identify a strategy to explore caves beyond Earth. Focusing primarily on astrobiology, the cave environment, geology, robotics, instrumentation, and human exploration, our goal was to produce a framework to guide this subdiscipline through at least the next decade. To do this, we first assembled a list of 198 science and engineering questions. Then, through a series of social surveys, 114 scientists and engineers winnowed down the list to the top 53 highest priority questions. This exercise resulted in identifying emerging and crucial research areas that require robust development to ultimately support a robotic mission to a planetary cave-principally the Moon and/or Mars. With the necessary financial investment and institutional support, the research and technological development required to achieve these necessary advancements over the next decade are attainable. Subsequently, we will be positioned to robotically examine lunar caves and search for evidence of life within Martian caves; in turn, this will set the stage for human exploration and potential habitation of both the lunar and Martian subsurface., The following funding sources are recognized for supporting several of the contributing authors: Human Frontiers Science Program grant #RGY0066/2018 (for AAB), NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant #80HQTR19C0034 (HJ, UYW, and WLW), and European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant #818602 (AGF), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project PID2019-108672RJ-I00) and the "Ramon y Cajal" post-doctoral contract (grant #RYC2019-026885-I (AZM)), and Contract #80NM0018D0004 between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (AA, MJM, KU, and LK).

About 210 spring tunnels were developed in Israel, most of them within its central mountain range and especially in the Jerusalem Hills. This phenomenon probably first appeared in Israel during Iro...

During the intermediate Islamic period, the settlement of Safed was transformed from a small unknown village in Upper Galilee to an important stronghold and administrative center, aggravating the problem of the town’s water supply. Lacking natural springs, Safed depended on cisterns fed by gutters that channeled seasonal rainwater from the roofs and on distant springs in the Nahal Amud ravine. As the town’s population grew, its rulers were required to install public water systems. Our field study of the region reveals several Mamluk water systems whose outstanding features are an aqueduct that channeled water by force of gravity from 'Ayn Biriyya to the Crusader/Mamluk citadel in Safed, and a spring tunnel flowing beneath the town that was accessible via shafts in the houses. The composition of the water in the tunnel is similar to that of a famous ritual bath in one of these houses, indicating a probable connection. The water systems were dated using Uranium-Thorium analysis and by radiocarbon dating. An ancient spring tunnel at the nearby site of 'Ayn al-Zaytun that may have inspired the construction of Safed’s water systems is also discussed. The archaeological finds and dating are consistent with several historical sources describing the construction of water systems in Safed.

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Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant Our understanding of the origin, distribution, and evolution of early humans and their close relatives has been greatly refined by recent new information. Adding to this trend, Hershkovitz et al. have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown archaic Homo population, the “Nesher Ramla Homo ” (see the Perspective by Mirazon Lahr). The authors present comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analyses of fossilized remains from a site in Israel dated to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago indicating the presence of a previously unrecognized group of hominins representing the last surviving populations of Middle Pleistocene Homo in Europe, southwest Asia, and Africa. In a companion paper, Zaidner et al. present the radiometric ages, stone tool assemblages, faunal assemblages, and other behavioral and environmental data associated with these fossils. This evidence shows that these hominins had fully mastered technology that until only recently was linked to either Homo sapiens or Neanderthals. Nesher Ramla Homo was an efficient hunter of large and small game, used wood for fuel, cooked or roasted meat, and maintained fires. These findings provide archaeological support for cultural interactions between different human lineages during the Middle Paleolithic, suggesting that admixture between Middle Pleistocene Homo and H. sapiens had already occurred by this time. Science , abh3169 and abh3020, this issue p. 1424 and p. 1429 ; see also abj3077, p. 1395

2 páginas.- 1 figura.- 16 referencias, To the Editor — 2021 is the International Year of Caves and Karst. To honour this occasion, we wish to emphasize the vast potential embodied in planetary subsurfaces. While researchers have pondered the possibility of extraterrestrial caves for more than 50 years, we have now entered the incipient phase of planetary caves exploration....

The Levant region of Israel, located along the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, is characterized by Mediterranean climate, but sixty km eastwards towards the Dead Sea Rift Valley (DSRV), the region rapidly becomes a ‘rain shadowʼ desert. Speleothems from the Mediterranean climate zone continuously grew throughout several glacial/interglacial cycles, indicating that water was always available in the unsaturated zone. Their δ18O variations match global and regional climate changes, with the Eastern Mediterranean Sea being the major control on their δ18O values, as evident from the similarity between the speleothems and the planktonic foraminifer G. ruber records. In contrast, speleothems along the central and southern segments of the DSRV grew mainly during last glacial periods coinciding with the higher stands of Lake Lisan, the precursor of the present-day Dead Sea. This paper discusses the newly discovered Zalmon Cave speleothems, located in the northern segment of the DSRV shedding light on the hydrological conditions along the rift during last glacial. Unlike speleothems located further south along the DSRV, Zalmon Cave speleothems grew both during glacial and interglacial periods. However, during last glacial their δ18O values, shifted to lower values by ∼1–2‰ relative to speleothems from central Israel coinciding also with the largest difference in δ18O values between Zalmon Cave speleothems and the marine record. The data suggest that a change of the westerlies' storm tracks occurred during most of the last glacial period, which resulted in increased rainfall in the northern DSRV providing freshwater input during the otherwise relatively ‘drierʼ glacial.

Research on planetary caves requires cross-planetary-body investigations spanning multiple disciplines, including geology, climatology, astrobiology, robotics, human exploration and operations. The community determined that a roadmap was needed to establish a common framework for planetary cave research. This white paper is our initial conception

Mortuary behavior (activities concerning dead conspecifics) is one of many traits that were previously widely considered to have been uniquely human, but on which perspectives have changed markedly in recent years. Theoretical approaches to hominin mortuary activity and its evolution have undergone major revision, and advances in diverse archeological and paleoanthropological methods have brought new ways of identifying behaviors such as intentional burial. Despite these advances, debates concerning the nature of hominin mortuary activity, particularly among the Neanderthals, rely heavily on the rereading of old excavations as new finds are relatively rare, limiting the extent to which such debates can benefit from advances in the field. The recent discovery of in situ articulated Neanderthal remains at Shanidar Cave offers a rare opportunity to take full advantage of these methodological and theoretical developments to understand Neanderthal mortuary activity, making a review of these advances relevant and timely. publishedVersion

The southern Levant region at the fringe of the Saharan-Arabian deserts is particularly vulnerable to warming and desertification, therefore reconstruction of the hydroclimate conditions of this region during periods of past climate change provide important insight on what may occur in the future. Here we report on high temporal resolution 87Sr/86Sr, δ13C and δ18O isotope data of a stalagmite from the Har Nof cave in Jerusalem, demonstrating major climate changes during the last interglacial MIS5e between ~131–116 ka. We combine also data from other caves in Israel and the ICDP Dead Sea deep drill core. The following palaeoenvironmental history is observed: • At 131–127.5 ka, Jerusalem experienced moderate Mediterranean climate conditions. Desert dust accumulated above the cave, while salt deposition occurred in the Dead Sea. • At 127.5–122 ka, across the MIS5e insolation peak and Sapropel S5 interval in the Mediterranean, highly negative speleothem δ18O indicate both Mediterranean and southern (tropical) derived rains. Surface cover diminished, and by 122 ka the 87Sr/86Sr and δ13C values indicate complete soil removal above the cave. Very high temperatures and intensive fires caused the removal of C3 vegetation. The rainfall season shifted from winter to summer with tropical-sourced precipitation. • At 122–120.5 ka, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios indicate contributions of sea salts. Extremely high speleothem δ13C values indicate no vegetation. • At ~120.5–118 ka there was higher rainfall and lower temperatures, associated with re-establishment of vegetation, including savannah-like C4 pioneer grasses that appeared on soil patches. • At 118–116 ka, the sedimentation rate of Har Nof AF12 stalagmite is extremely low, indicating regional aridity, coinciding with massive salt deposition in the Dead Sea.

Recent environmental processes are studied in ʻA’rak Naʻasane Cave at the northern Judean Desert, Israel. The outer zone of the cave is heavily influenced by the outside environment through a large entrance, facilitating entry of air flow, fauna and humans, with minor cave-forming modifications. Conversely, the inner cave sustains humid and warm conditions, favoring modifications by condensation corrosion of convective air flow, associated with deposition of popcorn speleothems at the lower parts of dissolution pockets. The warm humid air of the inner cave may be associated with an underlying thermal water table. Active condensation corrosion is decreasing, possibly because of gradual change in the cave microclimate, associated with falling water table and ventilation. Increasing connection with the surface is indicated by high collapse domes, rare flood invasion, and a large Trident Leaf-nosed bat community which spends the winter within the innermost parts of the cave. Bat guano supports bedrock corrosion and a rich invertebrate fauna, but humans preferred the outer parts of the cave, particularly for refuge during the second Jewish revolt against the Romans. Rare occasions of ancient human entry into the inner cave support this scenario by the small number of artifacts compared with the outer cave. Enigmatic small cairns in the largest inner hall were probably erected during the Intermediate Bronze Age.

The Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant (ca. 4500–3800 b.c.e.) is known for its extensive use of the subterranean sphere for mortuary practices. Numerous natural and hewn caves, constituting f...

Banded terrain is a planetary enigma that may be associated with salt diapirs. We study such features in Mount Sedom diapir, which is one of the few places on Earth where rock-salt is partly exposed and well-preserved because of the extreme aridity of its setting. The relief and surface features of the diapir generally reflect its parent-rock geological structure, stratigraphy and lithology on one hand, and recent erosion and dissolution on the other hand. We show that these features are commonly aligned along parallel strike-oriented lines forming banded terrain. We measure the surface deformation, demonstrating an absolute uplift rate reaching ~7–8 mm/yr. The extruded volume rate of Mt. Sedom bedrock is estimated to be 48,000 ± 12,000 m3/yr. Subtracting erosion and dissolution, the ridge mass increases by 70,000 ± 20,000 metric tons per year, inducing a young (Holocene) and steep landscape. We compare surface landforms with subsurface geology exposed in caves. They include lines of sliding faults, dissolution furrows, sinkholes of dissolution and collapse origin, karstic shafts, and an irregular disrupted drainage system dominated by blind valleys. The diapir rock-salt is covered by residual caprock, in its turn partly overlain by less consolidated hardly-soluble sediments and gravels. Terraces of abrasion and regressing lakeshore of the Dead Sea appear along the ridge margins. Exposed salt outcrops are relatively rare and undergo rapid dissolution, demonstrated by karst features which range from ponors to the longest salt caves known globally. The extreme solubility of the underlying salt influences the surface and subsurface landscape, inducing high permeability along fractures, and promoting runoff capture into the underlying salt. All studied landforms contribute to the banded relief of Mount Sedom, which can be used to analyze banded or closely-related honeycomb terrain across other terrestrial and planetary diapirs.

A karst survey of the western upper Galilee in Israel shows that karst has been a dominant geomorphic factor throughout the Cenozoic. We discuss the geomorphic character of Manot Cave on the background of other karst features of the region, in order to decipher the preferences of the humans who favored this cave over others. Tens of caves distributed over the study area demonstrate that phreatic and hypogene isolated voids and conduit segments are more abundant than vadose shafts, sinking stream caves and spring caves, although all these types are present. Most caves belong to old stages of landform development, prior to Plio-Pleistocene uplift and stream entrenchment. Manot Cave is a relict chamber cave, which corresponds to a plaeo-water table and the erosion plain above it. Subaerial denudation and slope processes have opened the cave to the surface during the mid-late Pleistocene. Manot Cave is compared with other caves in the region, demonstrating its unique character. It may have been selected due to the small entrance facing to the SW, and the large inner chamber which could be used for non-domestic purposes. This suggests a possible role of a unique behavioral and cultural suite of characters which influenced hominin preferences. The cave was used by hominins and animals until being closed again by colluvium and possibly collapse, ∼30 ka. Clastic, chemical, archaeozoological and anthropogenic accumulations reflect the various stages of cave development and gradual sealing of the entrance.

Evaporite karst is intensively developing at the Dead Sea (DS), both along its western and eastern shores. The collapse of overlying sediments into evaporite karst cavities results in sinkhole formation. The dissolution is produced by undersaturated water, aggressive concerning halite. The evaporite karst is developing rapidly, in the time scale of months to years, so groundwater aggressiveness is a relevant factor for sinkhole susceptibility assessment. The present study analyzes sinkhole development concerning groundwater aggressiveness. The aggressiveness is evaluated from bulk resistivity (ρx) of the aquifer, measured from the surface using the Transient Electromagnetic (TEM) method, and from resistivity (ρw) of groundwater filling its pores. We suggest a methodology for water aggressiveness determination and its classification concerning salt. We then demonstrate a significant correlation between water aggressiveness and the actual distribution of sinkholes in five study areas along the Dead Sea. Conversely, we show that the timing of sinkholes occurrence within recent decades does not correlate with water aggressiveness. The timing is attributed to the multiple factors that control the dissolution of salt and consequent collapse. Acknowledging that the real hydrogeological conditions involve multifactorial processes, we shortly analyze other concurrent factors, including water table depth, existing salt karstification east of the salt edge, and site location relative to the salt edge.

A last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage, MIS5e) marine-coastal sequence has been identified along the Galilee coast of Israel, with the type section located at Rosh Hanikra (RH). The microtidal regime and tectonic stability, along with the detailed stratigraphy of the RH shore, make the study region ideally suited for determining relative sea level (RSL) through the MIS5e interval in the eastern Mediterranean. The sequence contains fossilized microtidal subunits at a few meters above the current sea level. Unfortunately, all fossils were found to be altered, so that U-Th datings cannot be considered to represent initial deposition. We contend that U-Th dating of Strombus bubonius shells (recrystallized to calcite) suffices to indicate a lower limit of ?110 ± 8 ka for the time sea level dropped below the RH sedimentary sequence. The RH-section comprises three main subunits of a previously determined member (the Yasaf Member): (a) a gravelly unit containing the diagnostic gastropod Strombus bubonius Lamarck (Persististrombus latus), which was deposited in the intertidal to super-tidal stormy zone; (b) Vermetidae reef domes indicating a shallow-water depositional environment; and (c) coarse to medium-sized, bioclastic sandstone, probably deposited in the shallow sub-tidal zone. The sequence overlies three abrasion platforms that are cut by tidal channels at elevations of +0.8 m, +2.6 m and +3.4 m, and which are filled with MIS5e sediments. We present a detailed study of the sequence, with emphasis on stratigraphic, sedimentological, and palaeontological characteristics that indicate sea-level changes. Although without precise absolute dating, the stratigraphic sequence of RH through MIS5e allows us to identify a time-series of RSL positions, using the elevations of three stratigraphic subunits. Reconstructed RSL values range from +1.0 m to +7 m (with uncertainly < 1 m), and most fall within a narrow range of +1.0 to +3.3 m. Toward the end of MIS5e, RSL exceeded about +7 m. Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) modelling using multiple ice histories suggests that GIA corrections range between about ?1.8 m and +5.4 m. This implies that global mean sea level resided between ?0.8 m and +8.7 m during most of MIS5e. The absolute GIA correction would not be constant through the interglacial, and reduces to a range of ?1.2 m to+ 2.4 m towards the end of the interglacial.

South-western Samaria is emerging as a major province of Paleolithic cave sites. Most recently discovered caves have been naturally filled with terra-rossa type colluvial deposits when the hillslopes above the caves were stripped from vegetation during late Quaternary times. Site formation processes differ significantly between caves with pit-like openings, such as Qesem, Emanuel, and Rantis caves, vs. those with cliff-side entrances, such as Shukbah, Tinshemet, and Deir Kaddis caves. The former favored accumulation of colluvial debris, while the latter were relatively protected from these deposits. Caves discovered in the 20th century were mainly of the latter, cliff-face type, while in the 21st century new discoveries commonly occur where construction works intersect previously unnoticed filled caves.

Middle Paleolithic human occupation in the Levant (250–50 ka ago) has been recorded in roofed (cave and rockshelter) and open-air sites. Research at these different types of sites yielded different perspectives on the Middle Paleolithic human behavior and evolution. Until recently, open-air Middle Paleolithic sites in the Levant were found in three major sedimentary environments: fluvial, lake-margin and spring. Here we describe a unique depositional environment and formation processes at the recently discovered open-air site of Nesher Ramla (Israel) and discuss their contribution to understanding site formation processes in open-air sites in the Levant. The site is 8-m-thick Middle Paleolithic sequence (OSL dated to 170–80 ka) that is located in a karst sinkhole formed by gravitational deformation and sagging into underground voids. The sedimentary sequence was shaped by gravitational collapse, cyclic colluviation of soil and gravel into the depression, waterlogging, in situ pedogenesis and human occupation. Original bedding and combustion features are well-preserved in the Lower archaeological sequence, a rare occurrence in comparison to other open-air archaeological sites. This phenomenon coincides with episodes of fast sedimentation/burial, which also allowed better preservation of microscopic remains such as ash. The Upper archaeological sequence does not exhibit bedding or preservation of ash, despite presence of heat-affected lithic artifacts, which makes it similar to other open-air sites in the Levant. We suggest that rate of burial is the major factor that caused the difference between the Upper and Lower sequences. The differences in the burial rate may be connected to environmental and vegetation changes at the end of MIS 6. We also identified an interplay between sediment in-wash and density of human activity remains, i.e. during episodes of low natural sediment input the density of artifacts is higher relative to episodes with high rate of sediment in-wash. The detailed analysis of natural and anthropogenic processes at Nesher Ramla suggests a much wider spectrum of processes than previously reported for southern Levantine Paleolithic sites. Nesher Ramla shares certain depositional and post-depositional characteristics with both cave and open-air sites and provides a better insight into processes which control both types of sites.