SOIL MICROMORPHOLOGY ANALYSIS OF AREA D AT MANOT CAVE, ISRAEL: INSIGHTS INTO SITE FORMATION PROCESSES

Manot Cave, discovered in 2008 in Western Galilee (Israel), represents one of the richest Upper Palaeolithic assemblages in the Levant. The site has produced a ca. 55 000 year old anatomically modern human calvarium, as well as Middle Paleolithic to Post-Aurignacian lithic and bone artefacts. The deepest stratigraphic sequence is found in Area D, located halfway down the steep talus. This area shows continuous stratification from dolomite bedrock to an early sterile colluvium, an archaeological colluvium, and a late sterile colluvium. The aim of this work is to characterize the different stratigraphic units by soil micromorphology in order to determine their origin and correlate them to stratigraphy in the cave’s other excavation areas. Components such as relative sizes of sand particles, microstructure, coprolite fragments, and chert gravel are utilized in our analysis. In particular we found that the early sterile colluvium is dominated by fine quartz sand, the archaeological colluvium by medium quartz sand, and the late sterile colluvium by very fine quartz sand. The very fine quartz sand dominating this late colluvium is also typical of the modern terra rossa soil. The implications of these finds for site formation and use of space will be discussed.