Ubeidiya prehistoric site
תל עובדיה | |
 | |
 Tel Ubeidiya | |
| Location | Israel |
|---|---|
| History | |
| Periods | Pleistocene |
Tel Ubeidiya (Tel-`Ubaydiyya; Hebrew: תל-עובידיה; Arabic: تل العبيدية), some 3 km south of Lake Tiberias, in the Jordan Rift Valley, Israel, is an archaeological site of the Pleistocene, ca. 1.5 million years ago, preserving traces of the earliest migration of Homo erectus out of Africa. The site yielded hand axes of the Acheulean type.
The site was discovered in 1959 and excavated between 1960 and 1974, mainly under by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Naama Goren-Inbar.
Location
Tel Ubeidiya is located between the village Menahemia and Kibbutz Beit Zera, one kilometer northwest of the kibbutz Beit Zera. Prehistoric remains were found northwest of the Tel.
Site's history
The prehistoric site was discovered in May 1959 near the Tel, south of the Yavniel stream, by a member of Kibbutz Afikim who was preparing the ground for agriculture. Excavations at the site began in 1960, led by Moshe Stekelis, assisted by zoologist Georg Haas, geologists Leo Picard and Nachman Shulman and several archaeology students, including Ofer Bar-Yosef and Naama Goren-Inbar. After Stekelis' death in 1967, Bar-Yosef and Goren-Inbar conducted the excavations.
Findings
Prehistoric remains starting from about 1.7 million years[1][failed verification] were discovered in the excavations, within about 60 layers of soil within which were found human bones and remains of ancient animals. These include some of the oldest remains found outside Africa, and more than 10,000 ancient stone tools.
The site also features rock surfaces in which the Prehistoric man lived during the Pleistocene period. As a result of geologic breakage and foldage activity, the rock surfaces are now inclined at an angle of 70 degrees. It is thought that the area used to feature a pristine lake along which Homo erectus lived after his exodus from Africa. The finds discovered at the site validate this theory.
On the mound once stood a walled city which controlled the crossing crossroads between the Golan Heights and the port of Acre.
References
- ^ Webb, Steve. The First Boat People 2006. page 8, citing Chernov 1987, Shipman 1992, Ganubia et al 1999.
