The discovery may radically change all our ideas about history. It seems that the true homeland of modern mankind is indeed the Land of Israel, and not East Africa, as it was believed until now.
The Kesem cave is located at a depth of 10 meters underground, its area is about 300 square meters. m. For 15 years, a group of specialists from Tel Aviv University, led by Prof. Dan Gofer, Prof. Rana Barkai and Dr. Rachel Shrigi, have been excavating the cave. In the past, artifacts have been found here, indicating that people have developed it since time immemorial, but the latest discovery is truly sensational.
It took several days for Israeli scientists to establish the age of the teeth and the fact that they certainly belonged to a man, but... a man of an unknown species. Recall that until now it was believed that the species “homo sapiens” (“homo sapiens” - man of reason) appeared in Africa 200 thousand years ago. Before him on earth lived Neanderthals, who for some time coexisted with our species, but then disappeared. It is also known that Neanderthals and “homo sapiens” sometimes intermarried with each other, which brought offspring, and therefore in our genome to a small extent present in the genes of Neanderthals.
But the discovery in the cave “Kesem” indicates that 400 thousand years ago in modern Israel lived in some other kind of primitive people. It has not yet been named, but it is clear that these people were direct ancestors of both Neanderthals and “homo sapiens”.
The analysis of teeth showed that the ancient inhabitants of the Kesem cave were mostly vegetarians, and if they ate meat, it was very rare. According to scientists, on the territory of Eretz Yisrael of that period, there was such an abundance of various plant foods for man that he simply did not need to spend time and energy on hunting. But then something changed, people were forced to leave these places and move to less favorable areas of residence, where they involuntarily had to start hunting and farming, and the transition from vegetarianism to meat-eating significantly reduced their life expectancy. In particular, the development of fire led to a constant column of smoke in their caves, leading to severe lung diseases.
Curiously, what do religious authorities have to say about this picture built by anthropologists?
Another sensation from the darkness of the ages was brought to us last week by the experts of the Ceramics Recovery Laboratory of the Antiquities Authority.
They reported that they were finally able to read the inscription on a clay jug found by Prof. Yossi Garfinkel and Saar Ganor during excavations in the Valley of a-Ela. Like other artifacts found in the valley, the shards of the jug date back to the 10th century BCE, the period of King David's reign.
The jug was broken into such small shards that it took several years to recover it. But when it was restored, it bore the inscription “Ishbaal ben Bada”. This is the first time that the name Ishbaal, which is mentioned only once in TANAH, was found on an ancient artifact: it was the name of the cowardly and weak-willed son of King Shaul, who, again according to TANAH, the people renamed “Ishboshet” (“son of shame”). After that story, the Jews apparently stopped using that name altogether.
Thus, the jug is another message from the era of King David. It remains to remind that thanks to the excavations of Prof. Garfinkel in this area, the historical reality of kings David and Shlomo, as well as the relative accuracy of the indication in TANAH of the borders of the Jewish state created by David is considered scientifically proven. The dispute is now only about the details - whether King David's rule really extended to Syria, Ammon and other surrounding states; whether Solomon was really as rich and wise as described in TANAH, and so on.
Let us hope that someday the answers to these questions will be found as well.
Sensational find in Israel: swords from the Roman period
Israeli archaeologists from Ariel University and Hebrew University have made a sensational discovery that topped National Geographic's list of the greatest archaeological finds of the last year. Four perfectly preserved ancient Roman swords were discovered in a cave above the Dead Sea. The find came as a complete surprise to scientists who had originally traveled to the cave to study a stalactite with a Hebrew inscription dating back to the First Temple (950-586 B.C.).
Significance of the find
The discovery of four swords in one place is an extremely rare event. Usually archaeologists find one or two swords, but four is a real sensation. These swords provide a unique opportunity to study the Roman military presence in the region and may shed light on the historical events of the time.
Impact on history
These discoveries have the potential to rewrite some aspects of human history, especially in the context of ancient Israel and its interactions with other civilizations. The artifacts found provide new data for study and may change our understanding of historical events and cultural exchanges in this region.
