Skhul Cave (or es-Skhul, and sometimes misspelled as Skuhl Cave) is a rockshelter, one of four located on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel, in Nahal Mearot Canyon and very near the similarly ancient site of Tabun. The site contains the purposeful burial of several early modern humans, which all fall within the time range of 100-130,000 years ago.
Skhul Cave Occupations
Three main layers associated with human occupations were identified in the 1930s by excavator Theodore D. McCown.
- Natufian (Layer A)
- Mousterian (Layer B)
- Aurignacian (Layer C)
The Natufian and Aurignacian levels are somewhat disturbed and mixed, but Layer B is one of the most important Mousterian occupations in the Levant. Layer B at Skhul included the remains of nine adult and immature human beings, which have been interpreted by different scholars as either transitional between Neanderthal and anatomically modern human (AMH) or an archaic form of AMH.
Human Modernity at Skhul Cave
Naturally perforated shells were discovered associated with the burials, including Nassarius gibbosuslus, Acanthocardia deshayesii, Laevicardium crassum, and Pecten jacobaeus, and are interpreted by scholars as purposeful ornamentation.
Four fragments of what appears to be different yellow-red pigments were discovered attached to breccia from Layer B: that is, not in association with burials or other specifically meaningful locations. However, they seem to represent different recipes of heated and mixed hematite and calcium phosphate to produce different colors of yellow and red.
Dating Skhul Cave
Because of its very early age, and the evidence for what is considered a hallmark of modern human behavior (purposeful burial of the dead, personal ornamentation), much work has attempted to securely date the Layer B occupations, including electronic spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), Uranium series (U-series), and thermoluminescence. There is some disagreement among these methods, with the ranges for ESR falling under 100,000, U-series under 80,000 years ago, and TL between 99-134,000 years ago. A recent study by Grün et al. suggests all three burials fall within 100,000-134,000 years ago.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to the Middle Paleolithic and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bisson MS. 2001. Interview with a Neanderthal: an experimental approach for reconstructing scraper production rules, and their implications for imposed form in middle Palaeolithic tools. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11(2):165-184.
d'Errico F, Salomon H, Vignaud C, and Stringer C. 2010. Pigments from the Middle Palaeolithic levels of Es-Skhul (Mount Carmel, Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science 37(12):3099-3110.
Grün R, Stringer C, McDermott F, Nathan R, Porat N, Robertson S, Taylor L, Mortimer G, Eggins S, and McCulloch M. 2005. U-series and ESR analyses of bones and teeth relating to the human burials from Skhul. Journal of Human Evolution 49:316-334.
Vanhaeren M, d'Errico F, Stringer C, James SL, Todd JA, and Mienisv HK. 2006. Middle Paleolithic Shell Beads in Israel and Algeria. Science 312:1785-1788.
Vita-Finzi C, and Stringer C. 2007. The setting of the Mt. Carmel caves reassessed. Quaternary Science Reviews 26:436-440.
