Archaeologists may be coming closer to resolving the mystery behind the puzzling megalithic concentric ring and tomb complex often called the "Stonehenge of the Levant".
Overhead view of the layout of Rujm el Hiri. אסף.צ, Wikimedia Commons
It stands upon a land dotted with ancient dolmens or tombs that recall a distant time before the great urban centers of civilization arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt. According to legend, it was a land of ancient giants. Like stonehenge, its stone construction is concentric. At its center, however, is a tumulus of stone 65 feet in diameter and 15 feet tall. Long a mystery, scientists and scholars have puzzled and theorized about the meaning and identity of the site. Today, however, some investigations by archaeologists may be coming closer to the truth behind the enigmatic stone structure.
The site, known as Rujm el-Hiri ("the stone heap of the wild cate"), or more recently, Gilgal Refa'im (Hebrew for "Wheel of Giants", referring to a biblical race of giants), was first discovered just northeast of the Sea of Galilee in the Golan Heights area of Israel for serious study during an archaeological survey conducted in 1967-1968 after the Six-Day War. Following the survey, full-scale archaeological excavations were carried out from 1989 to 1992 by Moshe Kochavi and Yonathan Mizrachi through the Land of Geshur Project of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology.
They found that the site consists of a 520-foot diameter circle of basalt stones, encompassing four smaller, concentric circles of stacked stone walls that become progressively narrower in width. The walls of the circles are connected perpendicularly by variously placed smaller stone walls. Altogether, the site boasts as much as 37,500 metric tons of partially worked stone, with the walls standing up to 6.6 feet in height, with the outer wall as high as 8 feet. In the center of this concentric structure lies the central tumulus or cairn (interpreted as a tomb) built of smaller stones. At the core of the tumulus is a buried dolmen, or burial monument, consisting of two 5-foot-tall standing stones that support a large horizontal stone. The dolmen overlies a chamber, connected to a 10-foot-long access corridor. No human remains were found within the tomb.
The site, and other ancient settlements nearby, have traditionally been dated by archaeologists to the Early Bronze Age II (3000–2700 BCE) time period. But a reassessment was made when the site was excavated by Yosef Garfinkel and Michael Freikman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2007. Freikman also returned in the summer of 2010 to further investigate the site’s date and function. He now suggests that the tomb in the center, thought to have been built in the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 B.C.) was built at the same time as the rings, which have formerly been dated to the Early Bronze based on artifact finds. Tomb robbers looted the remains within the tomb, which included jewelry and weapons, but based on the discovery of a Chalcolithic pin dropped possibly by the robbers in a passageway, Freikman theorizes that the structure should be dated to an original construction during the Chalcolithic, and that the tumulus acts as the centerpiece of the ring construction. Moreover, an earlier phase of construction has been found beneath two later phases that contained the Bronze Age finds. Other Chalcolithic sites have been discovered in the vicinity of Rujm el-Hiri, including a very similar smaller stone structure dated to the Chalcolithic period.
What is it, really?
So what does this unusual ancient monumental construction mean? Who originally built it, and why?
A variety of proposed explanations have emerged. A large following suggests that it was a place of worship, where ceremonies were held during the longest and shortest days of the year. Others maintain that it was simply a monumental burial site for a major chieftain or important leader. Still others advance suggestions that it was a place to conduct astronomical observations for calculations related to religious purposes or an ancient calendar for agricultural purposes. All of the hypotheses have been based on interpretations of the material remains discovered and studied at the site.
One new theory, however, stands out from the rest, and takes into account not only the archaeological evidence at the site, but also the cultural contexts of ancient Chalcolithic practices and the surrounding Chalcolithic archaeological sites.
In an article published in the November/December, 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Dr. Rami Arav, long-time co-director of the Bethsaida excavations northeast of the coast of the Sea of Galilee and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, has proposed that the site was built for both funerary purposes and as a means for "excarnation", the removal of flesh from the bones of the deceased for placement in ossuaries, or bone boxes, by the ancient Chalcolithic inhabitants of the area. He begins his argument with a description of these small clay ossuaries discovered in the hundreds at various archaeological sites dated to Chalcolithic times. Unlike the mortuary practices of the Jews in the Jerusalem area during the First Century B.C and First Century A.D., when the deceased were allowed to decay away to their bones for a year in rock-carved cavities in burial caves before deposition of the disarticulated bones into ossuaries, there is no evidence indicating how the earlier Chalcolithic peoples of the Rujm el-Hiri area reduced the bodies of the deceased to bones for placement in their ossuaries. He suggests, based on the anthropological record of excarnation or "sky burial" practices of various cultures and civilizations, as well as his interpretation of archaeological finds at various sites, that the flesh of the bodies of their deceased were permitted to be consumed by birds of prey, specifically vultures, which can divest a body of its flesh within hours. He points, for example, to the ancient Zoroastrian dokhmas, or "towers of silence", whereby vultures would eat away the flesh from the bones of the dead placed on raised platforms, at least partly as a means of protecting the soil environment from pollution by decaying bodies. He suggests that the concentric walls of Rujm el-Hiri, which were built at progressively lower heights toward the central tumulus, allowed for vultures to easily view the laid-out bodies from their perches atop the walls. After the vultures did their work, the bones could then be freed of their flesh and disarticulated and placed in ossuaries, many of which were designed like houses or miniature granaries or silos. Scholars theorize that the ossuaries symbolized storage places for new life, just as granaries contained seeds or grain later sewn for new crop production. The practice is interpreted by some to suggest that the ancient Chalcolithic people, at least in this area of the ancient Near East, believed in a resurrection. The ossuaries were seen as "magic boxes" that had the power to resurrect the dead.
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Chalcolithic ossuary from the burial cave in Peki'in in the Upper Galilee. The cave contained many findings, including ossuaries decorated with human faces. Dated to 4,500-3,500 BCE. Hanay, Wikimedia Commons
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Chalcolithic period ossuary in the shape of a grain silo. Dagon Museum, Haifa, Israel. Hanay, Wiki
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Arav further supports his argument with a reference to research that suggests that the Chalcolithic people of the Levant originally migrated from the ancient Anatolian region of present-day southern Turkey. Studies of the material culture show remarkable similarities between that of the Chalcolithic Levant and that of southern Turkey, and excarnation is thought to have been practiced in southern Turkey during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. As one example, a "vulture shrine" was discovered at the famous Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk in southeastern Turkey. The shrine featured a mural wall painting of vultures swooping over headless corpses, interpreted as a possible excarnation scene.
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What next?
As all theories go, Arav's suggestion is just that - a theory. It will no doubt be the subject of some scholarly debate and criticism. But that is the nature of the game. Additional investigation and postulation about the mysterious "Wheel of Giants" are sure to come. Fo now, Arav's suggestion offers an intriguing and not altogether implausible explanation behind the enigma.
Details related to Professor Arav's theory can be obtained from his article entitled "Excarnation: Food for Vultures", published in the November/December issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, a publication of the Bibilical Archaeology Society.
Rujm el-Hiri as seem from the ground. Yuri Tsoglin, Wiki
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