Literature consulted (selection) Mount Carmel Caves Bar-Yosef, O., and Callander, J., ‘The woman from Tabun: Garrod’s doubts in historical perspective’, in Journal of Human (Israel) Evolution 37:879-885, 1999. No 1393 Gamble, C., and Stringer, C., Potential Fossil Hominid Sites for Inscription on the World Heritage List: A Comparative Study, UNESCO, Paris, 1997. Jelinek, A., ‘The Tabun Cave and Paleolithic man in the Levant’, Official name as proposed by the State Party in Science 216:1369-1375, 1982. Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: The Nahal Me’arot/Wadi el-Mughara Caves Kaufman, D., ‘Mind the gap: questions of continuity in the evolution of anatomically modern humans as seen from the Location Levant’, in Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia Regional Council Hof-HaCarmel 4: 53-61. Northern Israel Sanz, N., and Keenan, P. (eds), Human Evolution: Adaptations, State of Israel Dispersals and Social Development (HEADS), World Heritage Thematic Programme, World Heritage Paper 29, Paris, Brief description UNESCO, 2011. Located in the steep-sided Nahal Me’arot/Wadi el- Mughara valley on the western side of the landmark Stringer, C.B., ‘Evolution of early modern humans’, in Mount Carmel range, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad and Skhul Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution, Cambridge; New caves contain cultural deposits representing the past half York, NY, Cambridge University Press, 1992. a million years of human evolution. The site is part of one Weinstein-Evron, M., et al, ‘After 70 Years: New Excavations at of the best preserved fossilised reefs of the Mediterranean the el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel’, in Journal of the region and is recognised as providing a definitive Israel Prehistoric Society 37:37-134, 2007. chronological framework at a key period of human development. Archaeological evidence covers the Wolpoff, M.H., Paleoanthropology, Knopf, distributed by appearance of modern humans, deliberate burials, early Random House, New York, c.1980. manifestations of stone architecture and the transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture. Zaidner, Y., et al, ‘The Acheulo-Yabrudian of Jamal Cave’, in Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 35:93-115, 2005. Category of property Technical Evaluation Mission In terms of categories of cultural property set out in A joint ICOMOS/IUCN technical evaluation mission visited Article I of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a the property from 2 to 6 October 2011. site. Additional information requested and received [Note: The property is nominated as a mixed cultural and natural from the State Party site. IUCN will assess the natural significances while ICOMOS assesses the cultural significances.] A letter was sent to the State Party on 9 September 2011 requesting clarification on the proposed future serial nomination of additional sites; access to and physical 1 Basic data protection of Skhul Cave; the involvement of the Israel Antiquities Authority in management of the property, and the involvement of stakeholders. A response to these Included in the Tentative List queries was received on 12 October 2011 and is included 30 June 2000 in the relevant sections below. The response also requested that the transliteration from the Hebrew of International Assistance from the World Heritage ‘Ma’arot’ in the name of the property be corrected to Fund for preparing the Nomination ‘Me’arot’. None Date of ICOMOS approval of this report Date received by the World Heritage Centre 14 March 2012 27 January 2011 Background This is a new nomination. 2 The property Consultations Description ICOMOS has consulted its International Scientific The nominated property includes four cave sites (Tabun, Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management and Jamal, el-Wad including the terrace excavations, and several independent experts. Skhul) in the natural rudist reef of Mount Carmel. The steep-sided valley of the Nahal Me’arot/ Wadi el-Mughara 32 opening to the coastal plain on the west side of the elaborately ornamented. The excavations on the terrace Carmel range provides the visual setting of a prehistoric also yielded ground stone features, art and decorative habitat. The nominated property covers an area of 54ha items, lithics and faunal remains. Together these finds within a buffer zone of 370ha. The valley is one of many indicate a transition from plant gathering and animal caused by rainy season watercourses running down the hunting to plant and animal domestication and husbandry, western side of the Mount Carmel range to the coastal preceding the first farming societies. plain. The caves are situated on a cliff at the north- western face of the valley’s southern bank, at the point Skhul Cave where Nahal Me’arot opens westward towards the Skhul Cave (‘Cave of the Kids’) is located further up the Mediterranean. During the 1920s-30s when the caves valley around a curve, approximately 100 metres east of were first excavated and became known worldwide as the other caves. It is more like a rock shelter than a cave, prehistoric sites, the valley was known as Wadi el- being only a few metres deep. Quarry blasting in 1928 Mughara (literally Valley of the Caves in Arabic). Nahal partly destroyed the face but did not affect the cave itself Me’arot has the same meaning in Hebrew. The nominated or its terrace. Excavations by Garrod in 1929, and property and most of the buffer zone are incorporated McCown in 1931-2 yielded Middle Palaeolithic finds within the Nahal Me’arot Nature Reserve. It is arranged attributed to the Late Mousterian culture (c.150,000- today as an open-air display of prehistoric life, with various 45,000 BP), including eleven skeletons of Early interpretive features at Tabun, Jamal and el-Wad. Anatomically Modern Humans (EAMH), dated to c.80,000- 120,000 BP. One of the two earliest burial sites Tabun Cave discovered to date, this site demonstrates evidence of The westernmost cave, nearest to the entrance to the ritual burial, including grave offerings. The nominated property is Tabun, a large cave opening to the north, property is the only place known in the world to date where Dorothy Garrod uncovered the complete skeleton where both Neandertal and EAMH remains are found in a of a Neandertal woman (‘The Woman from Tabun’) dated single Mousterian cultural complex. Both fossil human to c.60,000-50,000 BP, during the first excavations at the types are key specimens in the debate concerning the site in 1929-34. The cave has also yielded Lower and demise of Neandertals and the origin of Homo sapiens. Middle Palaeolithic finds, representing the late Acheulian and Acheulo-Yabrudian cultural entities c.500,000- History and development 250,000 BP and a full sequence of the Mousterian The evidence from the excavated sites in the Mount c.250,000-45,000 BP. Carmel range indicates that humans first occupied the area around 500,000 years ago. It is proposed in the Jamal Cave nomination dossier that the prehistoric settlements of Mount Carmel, scattered along its ridges, ravines and The next cave along to the east is Jamal, a single coastal plain can be related to the changing shore line of chamber with an arched entrance clearly visible from the the past 500,000 years, not unlike the Carmel reef itself – mouth of the valley. Stone structures located outside the a continental shelf built over the millennia by a group of cave when it was first investigated by C. Lambert in 1928 marine bivalves known as rudists that attests to far earlier were subsequently removed. Excavations during the regional and global climatic changes and fluctuating sea 1990s yielded artefacts attributed to the Acheulo- levels. While the majority of sites identified and surveyed Yabrudian cultural entities c.400,000-250,000 BP. throughout Mount Carmel have not yet been excavated, the sites which have been researched may at this point be El-Wad Cave considered as part of a proposed future national serial The next cave along to the north-east is the largest, nomination. These include Kebara, Misliya, Sefunim, deepest and most visible of the four caves, its name Nahal Oren and Raqefet caves on Mount Carmel and the meaning ‘Cave of the Stream’. The well-formed arched submerged site of Atlit Yam near the town of Atlit. entrance was once flanked by openings, one of which was enlarged possibly during the medieval period. A medieval Research and archaeological exploration in the Nahal limestone wall blocked the opening when it was Me’arot/ Wadi el-Mughara area began during the British investigated by Lambert in 1928, and the cave featured Mandate period following World War I. The Department of stalactites and stalagmites. The wall was removed during Antiquities was already aware of the potential Garrod’s later excavations. The large entrance chamber archaeological value of the area due to the visibility of the leads into five further chambers along a line extending caves and finds of flints and flakes on the slopes, when c.80 metres into the cliff. Excavations in the cave and its the British Mandate government planned to quarry the adjoining terrace have yielded finds over a long sequence valley cliffs for stone with which to construct a new deep- from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Neolithic (c.60,000- water harbour at Haifa. Trial excavations at el-Wad Cave 6,000 BP). These include the first established sequence in 1928 yielded flint and bone implements, querns, beads, for the Upper Palaeolithic and the remains of a Natufian stone structures and human remains. The find of a bone hamlet dated to c.15,000-11,500 BP; the latter includes sickle haft, carved in the shape of a young animal was stone-built house remains and a cemetery area containing identified as the first example of Stone Age art to be a large group of skeletons and skeletal fragments discovered in the Near East.