In recent weeks the Israel Antiquities
Authority, together with local residents and young people, has been
conducting an unusual archaeological excavation in search of the real location of the Tomb of the Maccabees.
According to historical sources, the Maccabees – Matityahu the Hasmonean
and his five sons, from the ancient city of Modi'in, led the uprising
against Greek rule and were responsible for cleansing the impurity from
the Second Temple.
The aim of the archaeological excavation was to determine if there is
any substance to the legends and stories that have sprung up around the
Horbat Ha-Gardi site, located a short distance from the city of Modi‘in,
and whose name is associated with the Tomb of the Maccabees.
The Tomb of the Maccabees was described in two ancient books two
thousand years old: The Book of the Maccabees and the Antiquities of the
Jews, which was written by Josephus Flavius. The tomb was described as a
tall, impressive structure surrounded by columns; it was said to
overlook the sea and was built of fine stones and was covered with
pyramid-like roofs.
The proximity of the Horbat Ha-Gardi site to the Arab village of
Al-Midya, and the similarity of the name of the village and that of
ancient Modi‘in, attracted archaeologists, scholars and the curious to
it c. 150 years ago. Some of them documented the site in their writings
and drawings, and some even succeeded in carrying out excavations there.
The latter revealed an imposing mausoleum borne atop enormous pillars
that supported huge stone slabs, above which was probably a second
story. Magnificent burial vaults were discovered at the bottom of the
structure. The excitement was intense, and the first researchers even
issued written announcements: "Indeed, there is no room for doubt. I
found the Tomb of the Maccabees and the tunnel I exposed held the ashes
of Matityahu”; “The ruins of the tomb correspond perfectly to the Tomb
of the Maccabees as described in the historical sources".
The enthusiasm was dampened by a French archaeologist named Charles
Clermont-Ganneau. His excavations at the site revealed mosaics adorned
with a cross in the floors of the burial vaults. Consequently, he
asserted that the purpose of the structure is unknown and it is
Christian in nature. He added that "It is possible that this structure
was built by the Christians so as to commemorate the burial place of the
Holy Maccabees, since they were exalted saints in the eyes of
Christianity. It is quite possible that in the future unequivocal
evidence will be found indicating the site is the place where the
Maccabees were buried”. Since the publication of that archaeologist’s
report, the site was abandoned and has remained deserted.
In an unusual step the Israel Antiquities Authority recently decided to
embark upon a campaign in search of the Tomb of the Maccabees, in order
to solve the riddle surrounding the place once and for all, and to do so
utilizing the tools of modern research. Such a discovery is without
doubt of national and scientific significance of the highest level.
In recent weeks, the magnificent mausoleum was located, and it was
re-excavated with the help of many local residents from Modi‘in and the
Hevel Modi‘in settlements. They were swept up in the adventure and have
contributed to the excavation by volunteering their time and energy and
have become an integral part of the professional team.
According to Amit Re’em and Dan Shahar, excavation directors on behalf
of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “There is no doubt that the
structure that was uncovered is unusual. The descriptions from 150 years
ago were revealed right here in front of our eyes, and we discovered
the magnificent burial vaults, enormous pillars that apparently
supported a second story, a forecourt that led to the tomb and other
associated buildings. To our disappointment, the building seen by our
predecessors had been robbed, and its stones were taken to construct
settlements in the vicinity; nevertheless, the appearance of the place
is impressive and stimulates the imagination. The archaeological
evidence currently at hand is still insufficient to establish that this
is the burial place of the Maccabees. If what we uncovered is not the
Tomb of the Maccabees itself, then there is a high probability that this
is the site that early Christianity identified as the royal funerary
enclosure, and therefore, perhaps, erected the structure. Evidently one
cannot rule out the assumptions of the past, but an excavation and a lot
of hard work are still required in order to confirm that assumption
unequivocally, and the riddle remains unsolved–the search for the
elusive Tomb of the Maccabees continues".
The Israel Antiquities Authority financed the excavation of the tomb
from its budget, and additional resources are currently required in
order to garner as much information as possible from the area in the
hope of arriving at a solution to this riddle.
Millions of years ago, our primate ancestors
turned from trees and shrubs to search for food on the ground. In human
evolution, that has made all the difference.
The shift toward a grass-based diet marked a significant step toward
the diverse eating habits that became a key human characteristic, and
would have made these early humans more mobile and adaptable to their
environment.
New evidence just published by a research team led by a Johns Hopkins
University scientist shows that this significant shift took place about
400,000 years earlier than experts previously thought, providing a
clearer picture of a time of rapid change in conditions that shaped
human evolution.
Naomi E. Levin, the lead author of the report just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
said the diet shift is one of an array of changes that took place
during the Pliocene era -- 2.6 million to 5.3 million years ago -- when
the fossil record indicates human ancestor species were starting to
spend more time on the ground walking on two feet. Understanding the
timing of these events can help show how one change related to another.
"A refined sense for when the dietary changes took place among early
humans, in relation to changes in our ability to be bipedal and
terrestrial, will help us understand our evolutionary story," said
Levin, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences.
The paper reports on an analysis of fossil teeth found in Ethiopia
that shows the shift from a diet based on trees and shrubs to one that
included grass-based foods took place about 3.8 million years ago --
roughly 400,000 years earlier than the date supported by previous
research. (Grass-based foods could include not only grasses and their
roots, but also insects or animals that ate grass.)
The shift in eating habits would have broadened our ancestors'
horizons and improved their species' capacity for survival, Levin said.
"You can then range wider," Levin said of the human precursors, species including Australopithecus afarensis,
extinct some 3 million years ago and represented most famously in the
fossil informally known as "Lucy." "You can be in more places, more
resilient to habitat change."
"This research reveals surprising insights into the interactions
between morphology and behavior among Pliocene primates," said co-author
Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
"The results not only show an earlier start to grass-based food
consumption among hominins and baboons but also indicate that form does
not always precede function. In the earliest baboons, dietary shift
toward grass occurred before its teeth were specialized for grazing."
Researchers analyzed 152 fossil teeth from an array of animals
including pigs, antelopes, giraffes and human ancestors gathered from a
roughly 100 square-mile area of what is now the Afar region of Ethiopia.
Among the samples were teeth from hominins -- including contemporary
humans and our extinct ancestors -- believed to represent 16 different
individuals, said Levin, one of four co-authors of the paper. Her
collaborators were Haile-Selassie, Stephen R. Frost of the University of
Oregon and Beverly Z. Saylor of Case Western Reserve University.
The teeth were examined for carbon isotope distribution, a marker
that can distinguish the types of foods the animals ate. The data showed
that both human ancestors and members of a now-extinct, large species
of baboon were eating large amounts of grass-based foods as early as
3.76 million years ago. Previous research dated the earliest evidence
for grass-based foods in early human diets to about 3.4 million years
ago.
The researchers could not firmly establish a link between external
environmental change and the diet of hominins and baboons, but instead
attribute the dietary expansion to changes in relations among members of
the African primate communities, such as the appearance of new species
of primates.
"Timing is critical to understanding the context for this dietary
expansion among early humans in relationship to what's happening in
global climate, in vegetation communities in Africa, among other
mammals, and in terms of the other evolutionary changes that are
happening among early humans," she said. "If we know the timing of
events we can start to relate them to one another."
Around one million years ago, early humans
were skillful at using the landscape features of the Kenyan Rift to
ambush and kill their prey, according to new research published in
Scientific Reports.
The area was a popular grazing site for larger animals (e.g., giant
gelada baboons, elephants, hippopotami and the spotted hyenas) due to
its locally high nutrient levels and the presence of an ancient
freshwater lake, together with the relative lack of dangerous predators,
such as lions.
An interdisciplinary team of anthropologists and earth scientists
have shown that animal movements were constrained to particular pathways
due to the restrictions imposed by the landscape.
Early humans became adept at predicting these pathways enabling them
to ambush large and dangerous animals as evidenced by the butchered
remains present at the site, in association with numerous stone tools.
Previous discoveries in the Olorgesailie region of the Kenyan Rift
include a large number of Acheulean hand axes, associated with the
butchery of large mammals and indicated that the area was well populated
with hominins, who returned to the site repeatedly.
The region looks significantly different today than it would have
done a million years ago due to a combination of climate changes,
earthquakes and volcanism.
However, the research teams were able to adjust for the effects of
fault motion, making corrections for erosion and the deposit of
sediment, to create a model of the ancient landscape and show how our
ancestors could have exploited it.
Dr Sally Reynolds (Bournemouth University), lead researcher in the
UK, explains how innovative modelling methods enabled the team to make
their discoveries, "By reconstructing the topographic setting in the
area and examining the trace nutrients in soils there now and
interviewing local Maasai leaders about current animal grazing
activities, we were able to build up a picture of animal movements
around one million years ago."
Explaining why the landscape of the area a million years ago would
have been conducive to ambush-based hunting techniques, Dr Reynolds
said, "The Olorgesailie region was particularly well placed for
ambushing larger animals because the landscape limited the routes taken
by those animals as they travelled through the area.
"Areas of higher elevation provided excellent lookout points as well.
There was also good access to reliable drinking water and a ready
supply of workable stone for the creation of hunting tools, making it an
ideal location for hominin occupation."
The work provides a new and exciting landscape based framework in
which to evaluate this and other hominin sites and as such will change
the way we interpret our ancestral record.
Skeletal fossils of the hand of Homo naledi pictured in the Wits bone vault at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sept. 13, 2014. The fossil hand is one of many fossils representing a new species of hominin. The broad thumb of Homo naledi suggests it was an expert climber. The Rising Star Expedition, a project that retrieved and analyzed the fossils was led in part by paleoanthropologist John Hawks, professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
CREDIT (Photo by John Hawks/University of Wisconsin-Madison)
MADISON, Wis. -- Working in a cave complex deep beneath South Africa's Malmani dolomites, an international team of scientists has brought to light an unprecedented trove of hominin fossils -- more than 1,500 well-preserved bones and teeth -- representing the largest, most complete set of such remains found to date in Africa.
The discovery of the fossils, cached in a barely accessible chamber in a subterranean labyrinth not far from Johannesburg, adds a new branch to the human family tree, a creature dubbed Homo naledi.
The remains, scientists believe, could only have been deliberately placed in the cave.
So far, parts of at least 15 skeletons representing individuals of all ages have been found and the researchers believe many more fossils remain in the chamber. It is part of a complex of limestone caves near what is called "The Cradle of Humankind," a World Heritage Site in Gauteng province well known for critical paleoanthropological discoveries of early humans, including the 1947 discovery of 2.3 million-year-old Australopithecus africanus.
"We have a new species of Homo, with all of its interesting characteristics," says John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist and one of the leaders of a team that painstakingly retrieved the fossils under excruciatingly cramped and difficult conditions. "We now have the biggest discovery in Africa for hominins."
The find was reported today (Sept. 10, 2015) with the publication of two papers in the open access journal eLife by a group led by paleoanthropologist Lee R. Berger of the University of Witwatersrand. The expedition to retrieve the fossils and their subsequent analysis was supported by the National Geographic Society.
With a small head and brain, hunched shoulders, powerful hands and thin limbs, Homo naledi was built for long-distance walking, says Hawks, an expert on early humans. Fully grown, it stood about five feet tall, was broad chested, walked upright and had a face, including a smile that was probably more human than apelike. Powerful hands imply it was also a climber.
The fossils have yet to be dated. The unmineralized condition of the bones and the geology of the cave have prevented an accurate dating, says Hawks. "They could have been there 2 million years ago or 100,000 years ago, possibly coexisting with modern humans. We don't yet have a date, but we're attempting it in every way we can."
So far, the remains of newborns to the aged have been retrieved from the cave and the researchers expect that many more bones remain in the chamber, which is nearly 100 feet underground and accessible only after squeezing, clambering and crawling 600 feet to a large chamber where the brittle fossils cover the floor.
"We know about every part of the anatomy, and they are not at all like humans," notes Hawks, who co-directed the analysis of the fossils. "We couldn't match them to anything that exists. It is clearly a new species."
The astonishing find was made initially by amateur cavers and thought at the time to be a single hominin skeleton. The fossils were retrieved by a band of diminutive paleoanthropologists, all women, recruited for their size. (See below)
"Naledi" means star in the Sesotho language and is a reference to the
Rising Star cave system that includes the chamber, known as the Dinaledi
Chamber, where the fossils were found. The circuitous and difficult
passage to the chamber narrows at one point to a bare seven inches.
In
addition to identifying an entirely new species in the genus Homo, the
collections of fossils, which bear no marks from predators or
scavengers, are strong evidence that Homo naledi was deliberately
depositing its dead in the cave, according to Hawks, a UW-Madison
professor of anthropology.
"We think it is the first instance of
deliberate and ritualized secreting of the dead," says Hawks. "The only
plausible scenario is they deliberately put bodies in this place."
The
cave, according to Hawks, was likely more accessible to Homo naledi
than it is today for modern humans. Geochemical tests, however, show
that the cave was never open to the surface, raising intriguing
questions about the behavior and technologies available to the
creatures.
"We know it was not a death trap," says Hawks,
referring to natural features like hidden sinkholes that sometimes trap
and doom creatures over long periods of time. "There are no bones from
other animals aside from a few rodents. And there are no marks on the
bones from predators or scavengers to suggest they were killed and
dragged to the chamber. We can also rule out that it was a sudden mass
death."
Instead, Hawks, Berger and their colleagues believe the
chamber was something like a repository. "It seems probable that a group
of hominins was returning to this place over a period of time and
depositing bodies," Hawks explains, adding that the supposition is akin
to discovering similar behavior in chimpanzees. "It would be that
surprising."
The way the bodies are arranged and their
completeness suggests they were carried to the cave intact. "The bodies
were not intentionally covered and we're not talking about a religious
ceremony, but something that was repeated and repeated in the same
place. They clearly learned to do this and did it as a group over time.
That's cultural. Only humans and close relatives like Neandertals do
anything like this."
So far, no other organic materials or evidence of fire have been found in the cave complex.
Dating
the fossils remains a key problem to solve, says Hawks. "We depend on
the geology to help us date things, and here the geology isn't much like
other caves in South Africa. And the fossils don't have anything within
them that we can date. It's a problem for us."
One hope, he
says, is finding the remains of an animal that may have been a
contemporary of Homo naledi. The fossils are embedded in a matrix of
soft sediment and there are layers that remain unexcavated.
According
to Hawks, years of work remain at the site and to document and analyze
all of the materials excavated from the Dinaledi Chamber. Plans, he
says, include bringing many new technologies to bear on analyzing the
fossils to help determine diet, rate of aging and where on the landscape
the creatures may have been from.
The project to excavate the
fossils and the May 2014 scientific workshop to analyze them were
supported by the National Geographic Society, the South African National
Research Foundation, the Gauteng Provincial Government, and Wits
University. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation also provided
support, as did the Texas A&M College of Liberal Arts Seed Grant
Program.
Berger led the Rising Star expedition as National
Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. The expedition involved an
international team of scientists, including six "underground astronauts"
who descended into the Dinaledi chamber to excavate and retrieve the
fossils of Homo naledi.
JOURNEY TO AMAZING HOMININ DISCOVERY STARTED ON FACEBOOK
MADISON, Wis. - The Facebook query was both exacting and cryptic:
"We need perhaps three or four individuals with excellent archaeological/paleontological excavation skills for a short term project that may kick off as early as November 1st 2013 and last the month if all logistics go as planned. The catch is this - the person must be skinny and preferably small. They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience, climbing experience would be a bonus. They must be willing to work in cramped quarters, have a good attitude and be a team player."
Although University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropology graduate student Alia Gurtov didn't quite know why she was raising her hand in response, she fit the bill. Slight in stature with a background in paleoanthropology, including work at famed Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Gurtov took a flyer.
"I just applied," Gurtov recalls. "In a very bizarre email, I gave my dimensions and my CV" and soon after, the Wisconsin researcher was on a flight to South Africa -- where she would play a lead role in discovering and retrieving the largest, most complete store of hominin fossils on a continent famous for such discoveries.
A bantam frame was needed because Gurtov and five other small women scientists were about to enter a difficult and dangerous subterranean labyrinth. Going down into the South African earth, Gurtov and her diminutive colleagues would clamber, crawl, climb and, finally, drop into a space where they could enter a chamber last visited hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of years ago by creatures that, scientists believe, were repeatedly secreting their dead companions, protecting them from scavengers and, at the same time, creating an astonishing paleontological record of a lost member of the tribe of humanity, a hominin species dubbed Homo naledi.
"It was very, very narrow," recalls Gurtov. "There is a 7-inch chokepoint. The only way I could fit in is if I had my head turned to the side."
The grueling 20- to 25-minute commute from daylight to the chamber of fossils included technical climbing, where the researchers, aided by an experienced caver, donned harnesses to mount a feature called the "Dragon's Back." Gurtov and her colleagues were forced to navigate several "squeezes," including one 15-foot section called the "Superman Crawl," where forward progress required wriggling on one's belly with arms extended like the soaring Man of Steel. The final leg of the underground foray, "the worst chokepoint," involved slithering down a 12-foot, crag-studded chute in the dark.
The expedition, overseen by noted paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand, was organized to investigate what was believed to be a single hominin skeleton, first spotted by cavers.
"You're in this initial chamber and then you have to squeeze through a crevice that opens into the chamber where the skull was observed," Gurtov explains.
Entering for the first time, she recalls, was a solemn moment. "It had the feeling of a tiny cathedral. It was just so still and dynamic at the same time. There was a sense of ages. It was absolutely silent. The floor was covered in skeletal material."
"We knew there was a skull in there. We had no idea we were going to find more than that," says the Wisconsin researcher.
Typically at the site of a hominin discovery, the first thing examined are the teeth, because they are telltale and -- as the hardest materials in the body -- tend to preserve well, says Gurtov, who spends much of her time at Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge looking at the teeth of animals preyed upon by ancient hominins. "We saw pretty quick that we had more teeth than would fit in a single mouth," Gurtov happily notes. When not in the cave, she lent her expertise on dentition to the group assembled to analyze the fossils.
Over that month in the field, Gurtov and her companions returned many times to the chamber, now known as the Dinaledi Chamber. Working 6- to 8-hour shifts below ground, the team recovered more than 1,500 pieces of bone by clearing the floor and excavating one small section of soft cave floor sediment, a puzzle box of fossils. "It was like pick-up sticks," says Gurtov. "You couldn't get one thing out without excavating something else. The sheer volume of material makes it unique."
The fossils were excavated according to the forensic techniques prescribed by paleontology, often with a toothpick, from the cave's clumpy, wet sediment. Wrapped in paper and nested in plastic containers, the bones of Homo naledi were prepped for the journey out to another kind of vault where they would be measured, documented, studied and reconstructed to reveal an entirely new species of hominin.
An intriguing find consisting of an
impressive pyramid-shaped staircase constructed of large ashlar stones
was uncovered in an archaeological excavation currently conducted by the
Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation is located in the
Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David, site of ancient
Jerusalem, and is being carried out in cooperation with the Israel
Nature and Parks Authority and the City of David Foundation.
This structure, situated alongside the
2,000 year old Second Temple stepped street, which carried pilgrims on
their way from the Shiloah (Siloam) Pool to the Temple, which stood atop
the Temple Mount. The street, a section of which was excavated in the
past, is remarkably well-preserved and is built of enormous stone slabs.
The street most likely runs above the 2,000 year old drainage channel,
discovered a number of years ago, which carried rain water out of the
city. It was constructed sometime in the fourth decade of the first
century CE, and was one of the largest construction projects undertaken
in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. Dozens of whole pottery
vessels, stone vessels and glassware were found at the foot of the
pyramid-shaped staircase.
According to archaeologists
Nahshon Szanton and Dr. Joe Uziel, who direct of the excavation on
behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The structure
exposed is unique. To date such a structure has yet to be found along
the street in the numerous excavations that have taken place in
Jerusalem and to the best of our knowledge outside of it. For this
reason, its exact use remains enigmatic. The structure is built along
the street in a place that is clearly visible from afar by passers-by
making their way to the Temple. We believe the structure was a kind of
monumental podium that attracted the public’s attention when walking on
the city’s main street. It would be very interesting to know what was
said there 2,000 years ago. Were messages announced here on behalf of
the government? Perhaps news or gossip, or admonitions and street
preaching – unfortunately we do not know. Bliss and Dickie, two British
archaeologists who discovered a small portion of this structure about
100 years ago, mistakenly thought these were steps that led into a house
that was destroyed. They would certainly be excited if they could come
back today and see it completely revealed”.
We know from rabbinic sources there
were “stones” that were used for public purposes during the Second
Temple period. For example, one source cites the “auction block” in
connection with the street: “[a master] will not set up a market stand
and put them (slaves) on the auction block” (Sifra, BeHar 6). In the
Mishnah and Talmud the “Stone of Claims” is mentioned as a place that
existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period: “Our Rabbis
taught: There was a Stone of Claims in Jerusalem: whoever lost an
article repaired thither, and whoever found an article did likewise. The
latter stood and proclaimed, and the former submitted his
identification marks and
received it back. And in reference to this we learnt: Go forth and see
whether the Stone of Claims is covered” (Bava Metzia 28:B).
On Thursday (3.9), at the City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem’s 16th
Annual Conference that will be open to the public, Nahshon Szanton and
Dr. Joe Uziel will present their findings from the excavation and the
different interpretations regarding the nature of the podium. According
to them, “Given the lack of a clear archaeological parallel to the
stepped-structure, the purpose of the staircase remains a mystery. It is
certainly possible the rabbinical sources provide valuable information
about structures, such as this, although for the time being there is no
definitive proof.”
Information about the conference can be found on the City of David website: www.cityofdavid.org.il.
