An Israeli (real COOL) Dolmen

Summary

Excavation in the Shamir Dolmen Field (comprising over 400 dolmens), on the northern Israeli basaltic terrains, was carried out following the discovery of enigmatic rock art engravings on the ceiling of one of the largest dolmens ever recorded in the Levant. Excavation of this dolmen, covered by a basalt capstone weighing some 50 tons, revealed a secondary multi-burial (of both adults and children) rarely described in a dolmen context in Israel. Engraved into the rock ceiling above the multi-burial is a panel of 14 forms composed of a vertical line and downturned arc motif. Building of the Shamir dolmens required a tremendous amount of labour, architectural mastery, and complex socio-economic organization well beyond the capacity of small, rural nomadic groups, thought that have lived on this era. The monumental megalithic burial of the Shamir dolmens indicates a hierarchical, complex, non-urban governmental system. The newly discovered rock art and the burial uncovered beneath it, brings new hope, to the dolmen culture research in Israel and the Levant. The dolmens of Shamir, bring us a new leap on the way knowing one of the most mysterious and underestimated cultures of the biblical landscapes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20913