Ancient Rock Carvings Shed Light on the Early Inhabitants of the Land of Israel https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/history-ideas/2020/07/ancient-rock-carvings-shed-light-on-the-early-inhabitants-of-the-land-of-israel/

July 17, 2020 | Yori Yalon
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New research has uncovered 4,200-year-old murals in the Golan Heights. According to the Bible’s chronology, these predate Abraham—who would have lived around the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE—by several hundred years. Yori Yalon writes:

The carvings were identified on ancient graves constructed from boulders, known as dolmens, that date back some 4,200 years, and appear to point to the existence of a mysterious civilization of builders that existed in northern Israel over four millennia ago. [Some] carvings depict horned animals such as ibexes, antelope, and wild cattle. At another dolmen, the top stone was designed to resemble a human face, and a third features carvings of geometric shapes.

Most researchers believe that the enormous stone structures were built in the Middle Bronze Age, 4,000-5,000 years ago. Hundreds have been studied throughout the Golan and Galilee areas.

[The archaeologist Uri Berger, coauthor of a recent study of the carvings, commented]: “Thus far, many dolmens have been found in Israel and neighboring countries, but we knew virtually nothing about this civilization of super-builders, other than the remains of the enormous structures they left behind as testimony of their existence. The cave carvings offer us the first glimpse of the culture behind the construction of the dolmens.”

Read more on Israel Hayom: https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/07/10/ancient-rock-art-in-northern-israel-sheds-new-light-on-civilization-of-mystery-builders/