Qafzeh cave

Excavations of the site began in 1932, by Moshe Stekelis and René Victor Neuville, but were interrupted due to a collapse.[5] In 1936, during the Arab rebellion in Palestine, the British blew up the cave because it was being used as a hideout by gangs associated with the rebels.[5] Excavations were renewed in 1965,[4][5] by Bernard Vandermeersch, Ofer Bar-Yosef, then continued, intermittently, until 1979.[1]

Early modern human skull from Qafzeh

Among the finds on the site are stoves, stone tools belonging to the Mousterian culture, and also human and animal bones, which attest to the fact that the cave had been used both for residence and as a burial site. The remains of 15 human skeletons were discovered on site, in a Mousterian archaeological context. Seven of them are skeletons of adults and the rest - of children. The high proportion of children skeletons is unique among Middle Palaeolithic sites, and it led researchers to look for signs of trauma or disease that might have led to their premature deaths. One child, Qafzeh 12, of around 3 years of age, by modern reference standards, had abnormalities indicating hydrocephalus.[6] Five of these skeletons were found buried in an orderly fashion in the cave's floor, of which 2 were found with deer horns lying in their hands. The site was dated to circa 92,000 BP, using Thermoluminescence.[2]

Human remains founded in the cave were preserved at the Institut de paléontologie humaine (IPH) de Paris and the largest part of Neville’s lithic series was preserved at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.[2][7]

One such burial is of a 10 year old boy from the earliest of the Middle Paleolithic layers, who was buried in a rectangular grave carved out of the bedrock, with his arms folded alongside his body and his hands placed on either side of his neck. Deer horns were laid on his hands, probably constituting one of the offerings put in the grave. The boy's skull bears signs of a head trauma that had probably been the cause of death.[4][8]

Skeletons, isolated bones and teeth found in the cave belong to at least 28 people.[9][10] Remains of Qafzeh 9 and 10 are nearly complete.[11]

An additional important find was the remains of ochre that were found on human bones, and, also, 71 pieces of ochre that were associated with burial practices, which indicates that ceremonial funerary rites that included symbolic acts which held special meaning had already been common around 100,000 years ago.[12] Ochre was used for body dyeing and ornamentation. It was also used during the burial of a brain damaged child that was found in the cave. Red, black and yellow ochre-painted seashells were found around the cave.[1][13]

• Es-Skhul Cave
• Skhul and Qafzeh hominins

• Yehuda Rut, The Forgotten Cave, in Al Hamishmar, 1959.
• Qafzeh, History of Discoveries, by Bernard Vandermeersch.