The site was briefly investigated in 1924 by Father
Alexis Mallon, who suggested that the
British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem take responsibility for excavating the cave. During the course of one season
Dorothy Garrod, with a team of local workers, placed a trench in the central chamber, as well as a small sounding in Chamber III. She identified an archaeological sequence which included a Late
Levallois-Mousterian layer. It also included a
Mesolithic layer that she subsequently named
"Natufian". This was the first time that a Natufian layer had been found as part of a stratified deposit. This layer contained
charcoal traces and a previously unknown
microlithic
stone tool industry characterized by crescent-shaped
lunates. Garrod's team found worked bone objects. The fauna was dominated by
gazelle, and also included the domestic
dog. The remains of 45 human skeletons, mostly fragmentary, allowed insights into a range of distinctive mortuary practices. A recently reexamined fossilised tooth found by D. Garrod in the cave, is the southernmost evidence of
Neanderthals ever discovered, raising the possibility that this
hominin species originally coming from Eurasia might indeed have reached Africa while fleeing from the advancing northern glacial climate. ==Wadi Natuf sites==