Qesem Cave

The cave exists in Turonian limestone in the western mountain ridge of Israel between the Samaria Hills and the Israeli coastal plain. It is 90 m above sea level and about 12 kilometers from the east coast of Mediterranean Sea. Deposits at the site are deep, and are divided into two layers: the upper is about thick, and the lower . The upper forms a step on the lower one. The deposits contain stone tools and animal remains from the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex. This a period that follows after the Acheulian but before the Mousterian. No traces of Mousterian occupation have been found. ==Dating==

Qesem Cave was occupied from about 420–220 ka, although there is some uncertainty regarding the end date. All archaeological finds at Qesem Cave have been assigned to the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC) of the late Lower Paleolithic. In 2003, 230Th/234U dating on speleothems established the beginning of the occupation as "well before about 382,000 years ago." The date for the end of the occupation has been problematic, with an early estimate of "before 152,000," subsequently revised to "between 220 and 194 ka" but rounded to "ca. 200 ka"; more recently "closer to 220 ka than to 194 ka" and thus rounded to "220 ka." ==Artifacts==

from Qesem Cave. Qesem Cave stone tools are made of flint. They are mainly blades, end scrapers, burins, and naturally backed knives. There are also flakes and hammerstones. Some of the horizons contain many blades and related blade-tools but they are absent in others. However thick side-scrapers are found throughout them. Acheulian type hand-axes are found at the top and at the bottom of the archaeological sequence. All stages of stone tool manufacture have been found. Many of the cores have sufficient of the surface cortex to allow reconstruction of the original stone's shape. A 2020 study led by researcher Ella Assaf from Tel Aviv University concluded that shaped stone balls discovered at Qesem cave were used to break the bones of large animals in order to extract the nutritious marrow inside. == Fire ==

The Qesem Cave contains one of the earliest examples of regular use of fire in the Middle Pleistocene. Large quantities of burnt bone, defined by a combination of microscopic and macroscopic criteria, and moderately heated soil lumps suggest butchering and prey-defleshing occurred near fireplaces. 10–36% of identified bone specimens show signs of burning and on unidentified bone ones it could be up to 84%. Such heat reached 500 degrees C. A 300,000-year-old hearth was unearthed in a central part of the cave. Layers of ash was discovered in the pit, and burnt animal bones and flint tools used for carving meat were found near the hearth, suggesting it was used repeatedly and was a focal point for the people living there. "These were a very sophisticated, very clever people whose toolmaking was advanced, who hunted skillfully, could produce fire at will, and of course ate well, we believe it would have been a fairly small group of people staying here", said Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ran Barkai. A 2020 study concluded that hominins living in Qesem cave managed to heat their flint to different temperatures before knapping it into different tools, for instance, blades were heated at and flakes at . ==Hunted prey==

The faunal assemblages consist of 14 taxa. These animal bones show marks of butchery, marrow extraction and burning from fire. Analysis of the orientation and anatomical placements of the cut marks suggest meat and connective tissue were cut off in a planned manner from the bone. Deer remains are limited to limb bones and head parts without remains of vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, or feet suggesting that butchery was selective in regard to the body parts that had been carried to the cave following initial butchery of the animal carcasses elsewhere. Moreover, the presence of fetal bones and the absence of deer antlers implies that much of the hunting took place in late winter through early summer. At that time the need for additional fat in the diet would have made those animals particularly important prey. The excavators described this as "prime-age-focused harvesting, a uniquely human predator–prey relationship". ==See also==