Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a prehistoric cave inhabited by human-like ancestors up to 400,000 years ago, offering a rare glimpse into a little-understood chapter of human history.
The cave, located near the northern Israeli town of Fureidis, was identified during preparations for a construction project.
Researchers investigating the site discovered evidence showing it was occupied far earlier than previously believed.
According to archaeologist Kobi Vardi of the Israel Antiquities Authority, experts in the 1970s had dated the cave to around 200,000 years ago.
However, new findings by Vardi and Ron Shimelmitz, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Haifa, indicate that its history stretches back another 200,000 years.
The revised dating is based on the discovery of flint tools, including hand axes, scrapers and blades linked to the Acheulo-Yabrudian culture, a group of pre-Neanderthal hominins that lived in the Levant between roughly 400,000 and 250,000 years ago.
Vardi told CNN that “it was a big surprise” to find that the cave was much older than previously thought. He said the site would have been occupied by people belonging to the Acheulo-Yabrudian culture, which once thrived across the Near East.
Researchers also uncovered animal remains, including bones from fallow deer and gazelles, suggesting the cave served as a base for sizeable groups engaged in hunting and other daily activities.
The findings point to a community that made extensive use of fire and lived together in organized groups. Shimelmitz said in a statement published by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 11 that the discoveries indicate “suggesting complex and rich camp life.”
Despite the wealth of artifacts recovered from caves of this era, scientists have yet to find substantial human remains linked to these ancient inhabitants.
Shimelmitz described the Fureidis cave as “a unique site of global importance.”
“This time capsule belongs to a unique period at the end of the Lower Paleolithic era, just before Neanderthals and modern humans became dominant and spread across many regions,” he said.
“Only a handful of sites from this important phase have been uncovered in Israel and the wider Levant, and most of them are inaccessible for research,” Shimelmitz added.
Following discussions with the construction company involved in the project, a road bridge was built over the area to preserve the cave and ensure future scientific access.
Vardi said researchers intend to carry out extensive excavations and studies at the site, a process expected to take years.
“Our big hope in the excavation of these caves is that maybe we’ll find hominin remains,” he said. “We’re very anxious to meet them.”
Experts not involved in the project say the discovery could help fill major gaps in knowledge about early human development.
Armando Falcucci, a lecturer in Palaeolithic archaeology at the University of Southampton in England, told CNN that the site sheds light on a period that often receives less attention than later stages of human evolution.
“What makes this find valuable is that it pulls the spotlight back to a much earlier and equally pivotal window (roughly 400,000 to 200,000 years ago); a period of profound behavioural and technological change across both Africa and Eurasia in its own right, including the shift toward intensive, repeated use of caves as central places in the landscape,” he said, noting that cave deposits from the era are exceptionally uncommon in the region.
Falcucci added, “The evidence for intensive use of fire at this site is particularly significant. It is during this period, and at sites of exactly this kind, that habitual, controlled use of fire becomes archaeologically visible, marking a major behavioural threshold in human evolution.”
Catriona Pickard, professor of prehistory and archaeometry and head of archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, also highlighted the importance of the discovery.
She said the findings “provide rare insights into the material culture and lifeways of early hominins, and as such, the site has the potential to transform our understanding of the Lower Palaeolithic in the Levant.”
