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01 September, 2010

Hebrew U. archaeologists unearth 12,000 year old funeral feast

The tortoise shells that were excavated by Dr. Leore Grosman and her team (Photos: Gideon Hartman)
The tortoise shells that were excavated by Dr. Leore Grosman and her team (Photos: Gideon Hartman)

Archaeologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have unearthed the leftovers of the world's first known funerary feast, which took place around 12,000 years ago at a burial site in northern Israel.

The team of archaeologists, headed by Dr. Leore Grosman, have uncovered remnants of an organized funeral feast, including abundant skeletal remains of wild cattle and the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise buried in separate hollows, one of which contained the body of an elderly woman thought to be a shaman. The feast appears to have marked the burial of the female shaman.

A study published on August 30 in the journal 'Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences' by Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology and Dr. Natalie Munro, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Connecticut, reveals that the shaman's burial feast was just one chapter in the intense ritual life of the Natufians, the first known people on Earth to give up nomadic living and settle in villages across the Levant region.

The researchers said the grave contained enough to feed a large number of people. 71 tortoise shells were excavated in the shaman's grave at the site. These tortoises alone, they say, could have fed at least 35 people.

''What is interesting is that these tortoises were brought to the cave alive, were then broken to be eaten and only the shells were then placed with the shaman,'' says Dr. Grosman. The plastron had been pulled away from the carapace to expose the tortoise flesh inside, and evidence of burning shows that the tortoises were roasted in their shells.

Cattle bones were found in a structure next to the shaman burial which shows clear signs of human butchery and bone processing. These remains are of at least three large cows which would have provided at least 300 kg. of meat.

The researchers say that the feasts were probably central elements in the burial events at this site. At this time, the Natufian culture was in transition to a more sedentary way of life, during which ceremonial behavior, differential treatment of the dead, cemeteries and new burial customs emerged.

The excavation at Hilazon Tachtit cave in the Lower Galilee began in 1995 and since then archaeologists have discovered several pits containing the remains of 27 people, including the shaman, which was excavated in 2008.

''This is the first clear evidence of feasting of special animals during the burial ceremony. They are burying the garbage in a unique place - in pits,'' explains Grosman.

''The second thing that's interesting is the context. We're talking about the Natufian people, which predate the Neolithic society when change towards agricultural subsistence started. The groups are bigger now so the feasts likely served important roles in the negotiation and solidification of social relationships, the integration of communities, and the lessening of scalar stress. These and other social changes in the Natufian period mark significant changes in human social complexity that continued into the Neolithic period.''



Downloadable File: LeoreGrosman2010.doc

 

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