508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



For three months during the spring of 1929, the American School 

 of Prehistoric Research and the British School of Archaeology at 

 Jerusalem made soundings in three caves at Jebba near Athlit, 

 Palestine — Mugharet el Wad (Cave of the Valley), Oven Cave and 

 Cave of the Kid — and partially excavated one, the Mugharet el Wad. 

 The locality is 16 km. south of Haifa and less than 5 km. inland from 

 the Mediterranean shore. 



Mugharet el Wad proved to be a very rich site, containing also a 

 more complete series of culture levels than any other site thus far 

 discovered in Palestine. (PI. 8.) Beginning with the Mousterian 

 Epoch, the cave was occupied almost continuously down to the pres- 

 ent. The sequence from the top downward is as follows: 



7. Mixed layer with remains of Arab, Byzantine, Roman, Greek, 

 late Bronze, and early Bronze periods. 



6. Mesolithic. 



5. Upper Paleolithic — Capsian in type, showing probable relation 

 to African culture. 



4, Middle Aurignacian in type. 



3. Middle Aurignacian in type. 



2. Early Middle Aurignacian in type. 



1. Mousterian in type. 



The artifacts of the Mesolithic layer included small flint crescents 

 and sickle blades, the latter polished through usage along the toothed 

 margins; cores of various sizes and shapes, knives, scrapers, awls, 

 etc. There were bone points, many containing one end intact to 

 serve as a handle; some were small enough to be needles but without 

 an eye, other small ones were pointed at both ends and evidently 

 served as fish hooks ; bone harpoons, bone polishing tools, and a bone 

 grooved for hafting microliths or perhaps sickle blades. Objects of 

 adornment included small bone pendants, a bone bead, and various 

 teeth cut and j)ierced for stringing, the canine teeth of a small car- 

 nivore l)eing especially numerous. 



The most remarkable of all the finds from this level was a small 

 human head carved from a black and grey banded pebble. The hair 

 and back of the head were left unfinished. The face was done with 

 care : long thick eyebrows, large long eyes, well executed broad but 

 not very flat nose, and prominent lips. The neck was partially com- 

 pleted. The- whole is about as large as the end of a man's thumb; 

 this is the oldest human representation found in Palestine to date 

 and may correspond in age to the late Magdalenian of Europe. 



The Mesolithic layer of Mugharet el AVad has thus yielded objects 

 hitherto undiscovered in Palestine — the stone human head, the bone 

 haft for microliths and the bone harpoons. To these should be 

 added from the same site a pierced bone resembling a baton and 



