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.