A pleasing aspect of carrying out a thorough trawl through the inscribed and T List sites of Israel and Palestine is that you can make a pretty complete tour along the timeline of human history in the Levant. To do so you need to start at the Carmel Caves where you can “enter” with Lower Paleolithic (from around 200k YBP) and pass through the Acheulian, Muarian, Mousterian (Neanderthal), Aurignacian and, finally, Natufian cultures (c10k YBP) at the borders of Upper Paleolithic/Neolithic – ready to move on to the true Neolithic at Jericho! Despite its coverage of an enormous time period, there isn’t a great deal actually to “see” at this site – just 4 “caves” situated at a cliff face. A reasonably thorough visit should only take about an hour. The caves are situated within the Nahal Me’arot Nature Reserve which seems to be “free entry” (and was packed out with “non-observant” Israelis when we were there on the Shabbat!) but you won’t get inside the “caged” cave area without having paid your 22 NIS entry fee (or have a “pass” as we did). The caves are reached in the following sequence

a. Tabun. The face of this “cave” is is viewed from an observation point at a distance of some 15 metres and I found it to be the most interesting as it possesses a well exposed series of archaeological strata covering around 150k years which are nicely identified and explained via a series of markers (photo) next to an explanatory board. Only here will you get a real feeling for the passage of time across all the cultures which used the site. It was in this cave that Neanderthal remains were found - prompting debate about the nature of their concurrent existence with Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

b. Gamal. A shallow cave which has been used to display a series of slightly pathetic models of “early humans” and some of their foods from the Mousterian period - strictly for the “kids” I think!

c. Nahal. 70 metres deep with a nice exposure of the limestone reef from which the caves were eroded. At the back, an audio-visual dramatization of the humans who lived in the caves is played at fixed times. Again I think this was primarily aimed at kids.

But weren’t 4 caves inscribed? Indeed, but I had to ask at the Visitor Centre where the 4th was as it receives no mention in the flyer they had handed out. This is the Skhul Cave which lies outside the caged area and is reached by walking 200 metres or so up the valley behind the Centre and climbing a short path behind an electricity sub station (it is signed in Hebrew!). This is hardly a cave at all – rather a small overhang but is where perhaps the most significant findings were made in the form of “purposeful burials” (the earliest discovered anywhere in the World to date?) of 7 adults and 3 children, some with shell ornamentation, dating back around 80-120k YBP. A copy of a skeleton, arranged as it was found, has been placed near Nahal Cave (ie inside the “cage”!) but 2 originals are on display at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. The skeletons exhibit some archaic traits and are the subject of much debate – do they represent Neanderthal hybridization or perhaps the second exodus of man from Africa which is now thought to have taken place through Israel. In any case, although there is nothing to see at the cave itself, it was nice to have seen the location where these remains were discovered, together with the originals in a museum.