Excavations at the Cave of Shukbah, Palestine, 1928

Abstract

The village of Shukbah lies at 1,058 ft. above sea-level among the Judaean hills, approximately 17½ miles north-west of Jerusalem and 10½ miles NE. of Ramleh. About half-a-mile to the south of the village a broad winding valley, the Wady-en-Natuf, dry for the greater part of the year, runs westward through the hills towards the coastal plain, and in it is situated the cave to be described. The cave of Shukbah was first noticed by the late Père Alexis Mallon S.J., Director of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, in the course of a journey from Jemmala to Lydda in September 1924. Père Mallon was not able at that time to make any soundings, but he picked up a number of flint implements, and noted the presence of masses of breccia containing flints and bones. At the beginning of 1928, when I arrived in Palestine for the first time, he generously suggested that the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem should undertake the excavation of the site, which he rightly considered to be promising. Thanks to the generosity of the late Sir Robert Mond the British School was enabled to do this, and in April 1928 I went to Shukbah with two collaborators, Mr George Woodbury, afterwards Research Associate at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, and the late Mrs Edna Thuner Woodbury, who share with me the responsibility for this piece of work. Excavation was carried on from the beginning of April until the middle of June, when we left with the intention of returning in the following year. At the beginning of 1929, however, the British School was asked by the Director of Antiquities in Palestine to undertake at once the excavation of a group of caves in the Wady el-Mughara, Mount Carmel, then threatened with destruction by quarrying. This work was carried out in collaboration with the American School of Prehistoric Research, and the two schools planned to return to Shukbah after it should be completed. In the event, however, the Wady el-Mughara turned out to be an extraordinarily important site, and excavations were carried on there until 1934, while the study of the material and its preparation for publication lasted until 1937. As there is no prospect at present of continuing the work at Shukbah, it has been decided to publish without further delay the results of the excavations of 1928.

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