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400,000-Year-Old Cave in Israel Rewrites Pre-Human Timeline
A cave in northern Israel was inhabited 400,000 years ago, doubling earlier estimates. Evidence of fire use and organized hunting suggests complex pre-Neanderthal social life.
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A cave in northern Israel has pushed back the known timeline of pre-human habitation in the region by roughly 200,000 years, forcing a re-evaluation of how early hominin societies organized themselves.
The site, discovered during infrastructure surveys near the town of Fureidis, was first examined in the 1970s. Archaeologists at the time dated it to around 200,000 years ago. Recent excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the University of Haifa have revised that estimate dramatically. The cave was inhabited between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago by members of the Acheulo-Yabrudian culture, a pre-Neanderthal population that lived across the Levant.
"It was a big surprise," Dr. Kobi Vardi of the Israel Antiquities Authority told CNN. The revised age places the site among a handful of well-preserved archaeological locations from the late Lower Palaeolithic period in the Levant.
Researchers identified the age through characteristic stone tools – hand axes, scrapers and blades – associated with the Acheulo-Yabrudian culture. Animal remains found at the site, including bones from fallow deer and gazelles, offer a window into the hunting practices and survival strategies of its inhabitants.