The turtle shell found
A granite stone carved more than 35,000 years ago deep in a cave in Israel may be the oldest evidence of ritual practices in the Holy Land.
A sculpture in 35,000 year old “turtle shell” may be the oldest evidence of ritual behavior in the Holy Land.
The archaeological fragment was revealed in a study last week, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The grooves carved into the stone are very similar to the pattern on a turtle shell.
Although the exact meaning of the drawing is not known, it is possible that it is an ancient symbol of unificationsaid the study co-author, Israel Hershkovitzphysical anthropologist at Tel Aviv University, at .
The ritual stone was discovered deep in the Manot cave, in the Galilee region of northern Israel, where excavations have been taking place since 2010. It weighs more than 28 kilos and is just under 30 centimeters in diameter.
Mysterious turtle stone
The chamber containing the carved stone was separated from the habitable areas behind a gallery of large stalagmites and stalactites.
The granite stone was discovered in a niche in the back wall of the chamber and was the only artifact found nearby.
The upper surface of the rock is carved with deep grooves.
While there may be previous 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 Manot Cave rock is the oldest evidence of ritual practices in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Dating places the carved stone in the Early Upper Paleolithic period, between ca. 33,000 and 48,000 years agowhen hunter-gatherers A wise man they were adding new stone tool technologies to much older ones.
According to the study, particles of wood ash found in the outer layers of the stalactites and stalagmites of the stone chamber indicate that it was lit by fire, possibly during ritual gatherings.
Acoustic tests also revealed that the camera was “suitable for community meetings“, facilitating conversations, speeches and listening, the researchers concluded.
“Our data from the Manot Cave attest to the existence of some early forms of collective ritual practices already in the Early Upper Paleolithic. The existence of a ritual complex in the Manot cave is not surprising… [Foi] a successful adaptive strategy for dealing with the major demographic and economic challenges that human society faced in the Upper Paleolithic,” the authors wrote.
