Heritage with Related Tags
Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: The Nahal Me’arot / Wadi el-Mughara Caves
The site, located on the western slopes of the Carmel Mountains, includes the Taben, Jamal, Elwad and Shooul caves. Ninety years of archaeological research have revealed an unparalleled cultural sequence that provides an archive of early human life in South-West Asia. The 54-hectare site preserves cultural deposits representing at least 500,000 years of human evolutionary history, demonstrating the unique presence of Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans within the same Mesolithic cultural framework, the Mousterian culture. The numerous Natufian burials and evidence of early stone architecture in the caves represent the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and pastoralism. The caves have therefore become a key site in the chronostratigraphic framework of human evolution, particularly prehistory in the Levant.
Gorham's Cave Complex
The steep limestone cliffs on the east side of the Rock of Gibraltar contain four caves with archaeological and paleontological deposits that provide evidence of Neanderthal habitation for more than 100,000 years. Unique testimony to the cultural traditions of the Neanderthals, mainly reflected in the hunting of birds and marine animals for food, the use of feathers as ornaments, and abstract rock carvings. Scientific research on these sites has made a significant contribution to the debate on Neanderthal and human evolution.
Kujataa Greenland: Norse and Inuit Farming at the Edge of the Ice Cap
Kujata is a subarctic farming landscape located in the southern region of Greenland. It bears witness to the cultural history of Norse farmer-hunters who arrived from Iceland starting in the 10th century and the Inuit hunter-gatherer and Inuit farming communities that developed in the late 18th century. Despite their differences, these two cultures, the European Norse and the Inuit, created a cultural landscape based on farming, herding and hunting of marine mammals. The landscape represents the earliest introduction of agriculture to the Arctic, as well as the expansion of Norse settlement outside of Europe.