JEBEL QAFZEH
LOCATION
Limestone cave in the Wadi el-Hadj, 2.5 km S of
Nazareth, Israel.
DISCOVERY
Excavations of R. Neuville, 1933 (Qafzeh 1 and 2); R.
Neuville and M. Stekelis, 1934 (Qafzeh 3-6) and
1935 (Qafzeh 7); B. Vandermeersch 1966 (Qafzeh 8),
1969 (Qafzeh 9-13), 1973 (Qafzeh 14-17), and 1975
(Qafzeh 18).
MATERIAL
Fourteen hominid individuals have been identified
from the cave deposits, ranging from quasi-complete
skeletons to isolated teeth. Two (Qafzeh 1 and 2, both
partial anterior crania, the first with a suite of associ-
ated postcranials) come from Upper Paleolithic con-
texts; the remainder from Mousterian levels. The
best-known specimens are Qafzeh 6 and 9, both with
fragmented but reconstructible crania, the latter also
retaining its mandible and an incomplete postcranial
skeleton. Qafzeh 10 is the skeleton of a child found at
the feet of Qafzeh 9. Among the Mousterian remains
Qafzeh 3, 7 and 11 (adolescent) preserve significant
skull parts. See Vandermeersch (1981) for a full
inventory of the hominids; Qafzeh 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,
and 11 are described here.
DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Qafzeh is a fairly large cave, of which three distinct
areas have been excavated. The early excavations ofNeuville and Stekelis took place in the floor deposits of
the cave interior; later work under Vandermeersch was
mainly in the narrow cave entrance (the “vestibule”),
and the terrace in front. Thick and complex sequences
of deposits were revealed in all areas. Upper Paleolithic
occupation of the cave is evidenced in the interior
(levels C-E) and on the terrace (levels 7-9). Level 9 is
dated by amino acid racemization, but without much
confidence, to 39 Ka (Masters, 1982). Middle Paleo-
lithic occupation in the cave interior is represented by
levels F-L (Neuville and Stekelis) and by the corre-
sponding levels 12 and 13 (Vandermeersch); it is also
represented in the vestibule by levels I-XXTV. The
majority of the human fossils found in the early excava-
tions came from level L; all those found by the Vander-
meersch team (with the exception of a couple of
isolated teeth) were discovered in vestibule levels
XVII-XXIV. Thermoluminescence dates on burned
flints taken from levels XVII-XXIII cluster around a
mean of 92 5 5 Ka (Valladas et al., 1988), and ESR on
mammal teeth from layers XV-XXI has given an aver-
age date for the sequence of about 100 Ka on the early
uptake model, 120 Ka on the preferred linear uptake
model (Schwarcz et al., 1988, modified in Griin and
Stringer, 1991). Average ESR and TL dates do not dif-
fer significantly among levels, suggesting that these lay-
ers do not represent a very long interval of time. Most
recently, nondestructive gamma spectrometry dating
has been performed directly on the Qafzeh 6 skull
and has given a date of 94 t 10 Ka by uranium/
protactinium, and 80 2 24 Ka by uranium/thorium320