Ancient site · Tomb
Raqefet Cave
Also known as Cyclamen Cave
A cave on Mount Carmel in Israel used by Natufian foragers as a cemetery. Impressions of stems, leaves and flowers in the mud lining of several graves suggest the dead were laid on beds of flowering plants, the oldest known example of this custom.
Stone mortars cut into the cave floor held traces of cereals; one team argued in 2018 that they were used to make a kind of beer, but other scholars think they were for grinding flour.
- Dates
- c. 12,000–9700 BCE (Natufian burials)
- Still standing
- Yes
- Location
- 32.65° N, 35.08° E
How we know
No writing existed; the burials are dated by radiocarbon, and the claim that people brewed beer here is still debated.
Nearby sites
- ʿAin Mallaha (Eynan) c. 12,400–10,200 BCE
- Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) c. 10,000 BCE – Persian period; tower and wall c. 8000 BCE
- ʿAin Ghazal c. 7250–5000 BCE
- Petra c. 4th century BCE – 7th century CE; Treasury 1st century CE
- Ugarit (Ras Shamra) c. 7000–1185 BCE; golden age c. 1500–1200 BCE
- Palmyra early 2nd millennium BCE – 1932 CE; height 1st–3rd century CE
Related
- Natufian culture archaeological culture