On Sunday, a team of archaeologists in Israel announced what they have described as a “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery, upon finding a burial cave dating back to ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II. The cave has also been called “frozen in time” as it has been untouched for at least 3,300 years.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the cave has not been opened in over three millennia, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime find! It’s not every day that you walk onto an Indiana Jones set – a cave with tools on the floor that haven’t been touched in 3,300 years,” said the country’s antiquities authority expert, Eli Yannai in a press release.
The cave was reportedly found by accident at a popular Israeli beach at the Palmahim National Park and is filled with dozens of pottery pieces most of them still intact and bronze artefacts including spears and arrows. Although some of the other organic material may have disintegrated over the millennia, like the quiver that held the bronze arrowhead, the artefacts are mostly intact.
Yannai, the IAA Bronze Age expert, believes that some of the vessels had been imported from other countries like Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus which was common for the burial assemblages of the era, the local media reported. But it also shows the “lively trading activity that took place along the coast”, said Yannai.
On Tuesday, a mechanical digger was used to hit the roof of the cave which allowed the archaeologists to descend into the man-made structure. The set-up of the artefacts was exactly like that of a Bronze-Age era burial ceremony, reports said. “These vessels were burial offerings that accompanied the deceased in the belief that they would serve the dead in the afterlife,” the officials indicated.
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The IAA also released a video which showed the stunned archaeologists shining flashlights on the vessels dating back to the reign of the ancient Egyptian king who died in 1213 B.C. Some of the bowls were painted red and some even contained bones, there were also reportedly some chalices, cooking pots, storage jars and even clay oil lamps that still held their burnt wicks.
According to Yannai, the cave may give them clues to a complete picture of “funerary customs,” of the Late Bronze Age. The archaeologists also found at least one intact skeleton in one of the two rectangular plots at the corner of the cave. However, since the bodies were not well preserved a DNA analysis was not possible, although the archaeologists have theorized that they were local coastal residents.
“The fact that these people were buried along with weapons, including entire arrows, shows that these people might have been warriors, perhaps they were guards on ships – which may have been the reason they were able to obtain vessels from all around the area,” said IAA archaeologist David Gelman. The authorities also think that this is a family tomb, the local media reported.
Rameses II controlled Canaan, a territory which roughly encompasses modern-day Israel and Palestine. Unfortunately, some of the artefacts were stolen, but the site has since been resealed and guarded as the investigation for the missing items is underway, meanwhile, the IAA is formulating a plan for its excavation. “Shortly before the cave was sealed, and despite guarding it, a number of archaeological items were stolen from the cave, and the matter is under investigation,” said IAA head Eli Eskozido, in a statement.
(With inputs from agencies)
