Scholar’s Bookshelf

The Cave of the Warrior: A Fourth Millennium Burial in the Judean Desert

Tamar Schick et al. (Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 1998) IAA Reports, no. 5, 137 pp., 15 color plates, figures and photos, $40

In late 1993, the Israel Antiquities Authority, anticipating the possible handover of territory to the Palestinian Authority, conducted a survey of caves in the Jericho region. Because this area is near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the survey was dubbed “Operation Scroll.” The operation found no scrolls, but it did discover two burials from the Chalcolithic period (4500–3300 B.C.E.). One, called the Cave of the Warrior (because of a bow found in it), dates to the fourth millennium B.C.E. and contained many perishable items, such as plant fibers, reeds, wood and leather; the other burial dated to the fifth millennium B.C.E. Both were primary burials.

This beautifully produced report opens with a handsome section of color photos, but the bulk of it consists of technical studies by a wide range of specialists on the chronology of the burials, the anthropological attribution of the skeletal remains, the burial practices (such as the smearing of ochre on the burial shroud), the grave goods, and the textiles, fibers and other organic remains. The advanced textile technology and the construction of the bow reflect a surprisingly high level of craftsmanship in fibercraft and woodwork and point to affinities with Egypt.