Into the Darkness: Deep Caves in the Ancient Near East

Pottery vessels and luxury objects from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, found in Zarda Cave in Western Samaria, Israel, were deposited as part of rituals rather than as burial offerings or ordinary hoards. The cave's deep and dark setting was chosen for rites of passage in which specially chosen members of society, akin to shamans, experienced altered states of consciousness. Over time, these caves accumulated social power, becoming liminal monuments on the fringes of social landscapes and elements of pre-urban cosmology, with traces detectable in later traditions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In this paper I will present the assemblage of pottery vessels and objects of luxury dated to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods discovered in the Zarda Cave in Western Samaria, Israel. The context in which this assemblage was found is strongly reminiscent of other proto-historic depositions found in Israel. As determent of objects of value found in the deep and dark caves cannot be explained by means of burial offerings or regular hoards one most provide this remarkable phenomenon by a different theory. In this paper, I claim that these depositions were ritual in nature. They bear physical evidence for rituals performed by specially chosen members of the society, which we call today shamans. These caves were chosen due to their physical properties to become scenes for rituals of rites of passage in the course of which they experienced altered states of consciousness. In the course of time these caves have accumulated considerable social power becoming liminal monuments on the fringes of social landscapes in the local cultures. We may understand deep and dark caves as an element of pre-urban cosmology embedded into the local landscape, traces of which can be detected in much later traditions.