Tabun Cave

The Tabun Cave ( dt oven Cave) is a cave in the nature reserve Nahal Me'arot in Mount Carmel (Israel ), about 20 kilometers south of Haifa. The cave is an important finding place of bones and tools of the Neanderthals. The approximately 25 meter thick layer sequence contains Fund layers of old and Mittelpaläolithikums that are about 500,000 years old at the base. The most recent layers are about 40,000 years old. In 2012, the cave was included in the UNESCO World Heritage.

Discovery history

The cave was discovered by the British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod and examines 1929-1934. Subsequent excavations (1967-1972) were carried out under the direction of Arthur Jelinek in the lower layers, which are assigned to the Acheulian, Amudien and Jabrudien. The lower layers were re-examined in the 1990s by Avraham Ronen (University of Haifa).

Finds

Significantly in their Fund density are particularly the Fund layers of Moustériens. The burial of a Neanderthal ( C1) from the layer B or C of the cave has been dated to an age of 80,000-120,000 years. The age of another isolated teeth from the B layers were determined by ESR and uranium -thorium dating. This confirmed a radiometric age of 80000-90000 years. The error of the data from the same stratigraphic units compared to radiometric methods of ESR and TL is however considered to be significant.