A team of Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers from the discipline of prehistoric archaeology has proposed an innovative hypothesis regarding an intriguing question: Why did ancient humans bring their young children to cave painting sites, deep underground and through dark, meandering, hazardous passages? While most hypotheses have focused on the educational aspect of their presence… Read More
For over a century, archaeologists have puzzled over the absence of cave art in the Levant in general and specifically in Israel. Now a team of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) proposes an original explanation: prehistoric humans in the Levant did not create cave paintings because many large animals, the subjects of cave art… Read More
A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) overturns prevailing scientific beliefs that King Solomon’s Mines not only harmed the health of workers in the ancient copper industry but also poses risks to the health of modern residents living near the site. In the new study, researchers conducted geochemical surveys at copper production sites in… Read More
A rare prehistoric ritual complex has been uncovered in the darkest depths of Manot Cave in the Western Galilee, Israel. The complex is enclosed naturally by impressive stalagmites that create a distinctive entrance to the site and features a unique and impressive rock with geometric engravings resembling a turtle shell. Researchers say that the layout… Read More
Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the National Museum in Copenhagen analyzed 450 pottery vessels made in Tel Hama, a town at the edge of the Ebla Kingdom, one of the most important Syrian kingdoms in the Early Bronze Age (about 4,500 years ago), and found that two-thirds of the pottery vessels were made… Read More
Researchers from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University (TAU) used a range of modern technologies, including drones, remote sensing, and 3D digital modeling, to generate the first objective, quantified analysis of the Roman siege system at Masada. Findings indicate that, contrary to a widespread myth, the Roman army’s siege… Read More
A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) has identified the earliest appearance worldwide of special stone tools used 400,000 years ago to process fallow deer. The tools, called Quina scrapers (after the site in France where they were first discovered), were unearthed at the prehistoric sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. They are characterized… Read More
Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have identified a ceremonial link between extensive Paleolithic stone quarrying and tool-making sites and the migration routes of elephants, which early humans hunted and dismembered using the flint tools crafted at these quarrying sites. The research was led by Dr. Meir Finkel and Professor Ran Barkai of TAU’s Jacob… Read More