Excavations at Kfar HaHoresh, A Neolithic Funerary & Cult Center near Nazareth, Israel

Since 1991, excavations have been ongoing at the small secluded site of Kfar HaHoresh in the Lower Galilee Nazareth Hills, revealing an unprecedented Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (ca. 9000-8500 BP) funerary and cult center, probably serving neighboring lowland settlements such as Yiftah’el (Garfinkel 1987). Originally thought to be a typical PPNB settlement (Goring-Morris et al. 1995), further excavations revealed evidence that the site served more as a cemetery and ritualistic center than as a residential area (Goring-Morris 1997).

Location of Kfar HaHoresh in the southern Levant, with respect to another site of the same period (PPNB), Ain Ghazal.

Several lime-plastered surfaces, some bounded by low stone walls have been revealed, which are interpreted as burial vaults (Goring-Morris 1997), as a result of their non-utilitarian properties. Unlike the standardized design of PPNB architecture found elsewhere, consisting of a porch opening into an enclosed living area, the plaster surfaces at Kfar HaHoresh are not closed-off, and are typically only bound with walls on one or two sides. Post-holes or stone stele or monoliths are often associated with the plaster surfaces, and apparently served as grave markers. Under the plaster coverings are a series of human burials, some primary and others secondary, often in unusual arrangements. A common theme is the manufacture of two or more small floors abutting a single wall, each with burials underneath, apparently representing numerous brief episodes of plaster surfacing, which served primarily to cover graves.

Kfar HaHoresh in the morning fog

Burial vault structures, including L-shaped walls, cists, and plaster floors (L1364).

Two modeled human skulls have also been recovered (Goring-Morris et al. 1995; Hershkovitz et al. 1995). Commonly associated with the burial pits are animal themes, including a headless gazelle carcass with one of the modeled skulls. Several largely complete, but headless, auroch carcasses (wild Bos); most spectacularly, in the 1997 season, was the discovery beneath one surface of human remains intentionally arranged to form the outline of an animal.

Modeled, plastered human skull (KHH-Homo 1), excavated in the upper area at Kfar HaHoresh.

Burial pit with bones arranged to depict a large animal, possibly Bos, as indicated by the shaded bones. The lower portion of the picture was removed during a subsequent burial (L1155).

Current Research

Few other objects of archaeological inquiry are as attractive and compelling as the Neolithic of the southern Levant.  Triumphs of architecture, agriculture, and art by the inhabitants of this tiny region sparked a fundamental transformation of human adaptation that would shape us into what we are today.  A greater understanding of this turning point is not only profoundly interesting, but also crucial to our understanding of humanity.  By filling certain gaps in our knowledge of the PPNB, the intrasite dynamics at Kfar HaHoresh serve this larger inquiry. 

Data from several seasons of excavations provides us with a rare and perfectly plausible opportunity to produce a report detailing a site with the unparalleled status of funerary and cult center. 

As site architect, my goals involve explaining the relationship between architecture and burial customs at Kfar HaHoresh, and comparing this to the architecture elsewhere during the same period, will aid the formulation of models dealing with issues such as settlement patterns and social relations during this watershed event of the human endeavor.

Here are some examples of my plan drawings, from the 1999 seasons of excavations:

References

Garfinkel, Y.

1987    Yiftah’el: A Neolithic Village from the seventh millennium B.C. in Lower Galilee, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology 14: 199-212.

Goring-Morris, A.N.

1997    The quick and the dead: the social context of Aceramic Neolithic mortuary practices as seen from Kfar HaHoresh. In: I. Kuijt (ed.), Social Configurations of the Near Eastern Neolithic: Community Identity, Hierarchical Organization, and Ritual.

Goring-Morris, A.N., Y. Goren, L.K. Horwitz, D. Bar-Yosef and I. Hershkovitz

1995    Investigations at an Early Neolithic settlement in Lower Galilee: results of the 1991 season at Kefar HaHoresh. 'Atiqot 27: 37-62.

Hershkovitz, I., I. Zohar, M.S. Speirs, I. Segal, O. Meirav, U. Sherter, H. Feldman and N. Goring-Morris

1995    Remedy for an 8500 year-old plastered human skull from Kfar HaHoresh, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 779-788.