Home > Sites > Carmel > Carmel Caves

Contents: Background Location Pre-History General View The caves Etymology References

Background:

 

Mount Carmel and the shore of Carmel have more than 210 prehistoric known sites, spanning from 150,000 years ago.  One of the major caves are in Nahal Maarot - known as the  Carmel Caves.   Another set of caves is in Oren valley and is covered in an additional web page.

 

These caves were the main sites of the early man, while the other sites were either seasonal (like in Oren) or workshops. Here the archeologists revealed rich findings, which are famous in the prehistoric research.

 

 The largest cave in this place is the Tanur ( Tabun in Arabic) cave, which is located in the southern cliff of Nahal Maarot, and is open to the public and managed by the visitors center's guides. There are 3 additional caves here.

  

 

Location:

  

   These caves are located 4 KM sout of Ein Hod (near Atlit), on the old Haifa-Tel-Aviv road (#4), on the western edge of Mount Carmel.  In this site there is a parking lot, visitors center, guided tours to the cave, and an audio-visual show.

 

 

Pre History in the Carmel:

 

  The excavations in the Carmel region showed that the early man has been in this area over the last 150,000 years. The number of sites per period fluctuated during these years. The population peaked during the Middle Paleolithic period (80,000-40,000 BC), the Epi-Paleolithic period (16,000 - 8,300 BC) and the Neolithic period (8,300 -4,500 BC). There were fewer numbers in the Early Paleolithic period (150,000-80,000BC) and the upper Paleolithic period (40,000 - 16,000 BC).

 

   In the Middle Paleolithic period (80,000-40,000 BC) there were the majority of the settlements in the Carmel.  These people knew how to make knives, scrapers and points out of flint. The popular areas of the Carmel were the sites of the source of the flint stones, and there were many workshops that prepared theses tools. There were two types found in the Carmel: Homo Sapiens (our ancestors) and the Neanderthaloids (the specie that eventually disappeared, which had about 15% smaller brain). Note that this time coincided with the last Ice age (100,000 to 10,000 BC), and so the climate was wet and cold, and many Oak trees were growing in the Carmel.

 

   In the later periods, the Epi-Paleolithic period (16,000 - 8,300 BC) and the Neolithic period (8,300 -4,500 BC) the early man already domesticated plants and animals. The type of early man that was found from this period was the archaic Mediterranean type, with average height of 160-165 cm.

 

  The large caves along the western edge of the Carmel were the major settlements. Most of the other 210 sites in this region were either:

•  seasonal (like the  Oren caves),

• used for a hunting bases (in the entrance of the creeks, along the Carmel shore),

•  flint workshop sites (most of the sites in the top of Mount Carmel).

 

General View:

 

The park is located near the old coastal road (#4) and very easily accessible.  This is the general view of the rock, at the entrance of a dry creek - Nahal Maarot (the caves creek). In the center of the cliff is the entrance to the cave.

 

Click on the photo to view it in higher resolution...

 

The Tanur cave is located in the middle of the cliff. In this large natural cave, the early man used as a shelter, campfire and housing. The following photo shows the entrance to this cave.

 

Click on the photo to view it in higher resolution...

 

This is another view of the Tanur cave. The stairs lead from the visitors center into the entrance of the cave.

 

 

These caves are one of the oldest in Mount Carmel, starting from the Early Paleolithic period (150,000-80,000BC). There are only 3 more sites from this period in other caves in this region.

 

Etymology (behind the name):

 

• "Maarot" is caves (plural) in Hebrew

 

References:

 

• Atlas of Haifa and Mount Carmel  (1980, ISBN 965-222-003-5) - Prehistory pp 32-33 [A. Ronen & J. Olami)

 

See also:  Oren Caves - another prehistoric site (but not open to the public)

 

BibleWalks.com - walk with us through the sites of the Holy Land

 

Oren caves<<<---previous Carmel site ----<<<All Sites>>>---next  Carmel site--->>>Atlit