Posted on 04/24/2020 11:11:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The slab lay over the remains of several individuals dating from 14,000 to 12,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon analysis of several of the skeletons. However, the remarkable image on the slab was only noticed some years after its discovery, while the stone was being carefully studied in the laboratories of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Haaretz has learned.
The image on the slab is an extremely rare example of an identifiable human figure made by Natufians, the researchers say.
The Natufian culture existed from about 15,000 to about 11,700 years ago, and spanned from Sinai in the south to northern Syria, and east into the Jordanian desert, according to professors Danny Rosenberg, György Lengyel and Dani Nadel, and research fellow Rivka Chasan, in their new paper in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology...
At some sites, archaeologists tend to agree that the Natufians actually settled year-round in hamlets. As they settled and began to farm (and had dogs), the Natufians established what may be the earliest distinct cemeteries, where communities buried at least some of their dead. At least some others who were dearly departed were relegated to beneath the floor of the home or laid to rest nearby.
But it seems that when they did bury their dead, Natufian mortuary practices were elaborate. Their funerals may have featured gathering and feasting, and - going by the newly found crude depiction - dancing. The figure on the slab could plausibly be a shaman with an exposed penis or be dressed up as an animal, in which case the protuberance could be a tail.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Human figure on a Natufian burial slab: Actual and illustration Eli Crater Gerstein
In before some moron adds "piltdownman" to the keywords.
Wait... don’t tell me...
KILLROY WAS THERE!!!!!
:^)
I like that word. I'm gonna try to use it once a day.
COVID-19 numbers to be adjusted accordingly.
The rest of us have amateurtuberances.
nully ducking and running for cover...
If Snoopy was....”rude”...
Always carefully examine the protuberances and the contuberances of every situation.
3300 years? Nice run! (More than we’ll get).
Exuberantly examining my protuberance.
It’s Slenderman
You’re use of that word is a protuberance of this article.
Does that make this object around the same age as Gobekli Tepe?
Closer to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's age.
Last I checked, one is in the front, the other is in the back... Can't the scientist figure out which one it is?
“....be a shaman with an exposed penis .”
That’s how you tell if your shaman is any good!
Very gay.
or instructions on how to fied dress a heron/crane.
“They may also have indulged in the demon alcohol, judging by evidence for brewing noted at Raqefet Cave as well; and the last rites may have also featured music and a dancing figure, perhaps even a shaman.”
Sounds Irish.
(What I’d give for a time machine.)
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