Ancient ‘portal to the UNDERWORLD’ is discovered in a cave in Israel containing human skulls and hidden lamps
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A large cave in Israel was seen by a bizarre cult as a “gateway to the underworld” during Roman times, a new study claims.
Archaeologists have analyzed artifacts from Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills, including oil lamps, axes and even three human skulls.
About 2,000 years ago, the objects in the cave were set up by cult members during attempts to summon the dead – an ancient custom known as “necromancy.”
Caves were thought of as sites for this ‘ritual of magic’, as they were seen as gateways to the underground β and thus to the ‘underworld’.
It follows the discovery of 11,000-year-old human remains in a cave in Cumbria, believed to belong to a man who reoccupied Britain after the last Ice Age.
Israel’s Te’omim Cave (pictured) has “cultic and physical elements” that suggest it served as a “gateway to the underworld,” experts say
Pictured are oil lamps found under the upper part of a human skull (frontal and parietal bones) in the cave
The new study was written by a pair of archaeologists – Eitan Klein of Israel Antiquities Authority and Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University.
“The Te’omim Cave in the hills of Jerusalem has all the cultic and physical elements necessary to serve as a possible gateway to the underworld,” they say in their paper.
“The finds and their specific archaeological contexts provide a better understanding of divination rituals that were probably held in the cave.”
Te’omim Cave, also known as the Twins Cave, is located east of the city of Beit Shemesh, southwest of Jerusalem.
It is an underground space with a deep shaft at one end, with a spring flowing and the water collected in a rock-cut pool.
It was first excavated in 1873 by experts who mapped it and noticed a deep pit at its northern end, but it wasn’t until the late 2000s that archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem began to study the site extensively.
More than 120 intact oil lamps were collected during research efforts between 2010 and 2016 from all parts of the cave, most dating from the second to fourth centuries AD.
“All of these lamps were deliberately placed in narrow, deep crevices in the walls of the main chamber or under the rubble,” say the authors.
“Some crevices contain groups of oil lamps mixed with weapons and pottery vessels from earlier periods or placed with human skulls.”
The team suggests the oil lamps, weapons, vessels, coins and three human skulls were used as part of necromancy ceremonies that took place in the cave.
These artifacts have since been dated to about 2,000 years ago, during Roman times.
Te’omim Cave, also known as the Twins Cave, is located east of the city of Beit Shemesh, southwest of Jerusalem
Necromancy is the ancient practice of trying to communicate with the dead. Caves were thought of as sites for this ‘ritual of magic’, as they were seen as gateways to the underground β and thus to the ‘underworld’. Pictured is a deep shaft in the northern part of Te’omim Cave
Here an archaeologist is seen extracting an oil lamp from a crevice between boulders in the cave. All of these lamps had been purposely placed in narrow, deep crevices in the walls of the main room or under the rubble
The entrance to the cave is a natural opening that was widened by ‘hewing’ – by a person using some kind of tool, possibly an axe.
On entering, one descends northward into a spacious room of about 50 by 70 meters, most of which is covered with a huge pile of stones.
Several passages and fissures in this rubble lead to “underground fissures” and cavities” that are “rich in archaeological finds,” the team says.
The three human skulls were found in hard-to-reach crevices and under large stones in the central chamber – and were not accompanied by bones from other parts of the body.
It’s likely attempts were made to talk to the people the skulls once belonged to, the authors argue.
Likewise, the oil lamps were deliberately placed in narrow, deep crevices, most of which were only accessible by difficult crawling.
“We had to use long poles with iron hooks to loosen a lot of them, and probably long poles were used to stick them in initially,” they add.
“The fact that these lamps were pushed and buried deep into these hidden, hard-to-reach crevices suggests that illuminating the dark cavern was not their sole purpose.”
The researchers note that it was common at the time to make interpretations of shapes created by the flames of an oil lamp as evidence of communication from the dead.
Meanwhile, the placement of metal axes in the cave was an attempt to provide protection from evil spirits.
In their new study, published in Harvard Theological Reviewthe experts admit that classical sources hardly mention the consecration of skulls.
However, this is because they were mostly used for secret rites involving necromancy and communication with the dead, they claim.
The Te’omim Cave is given as an example of a nekyomanteion or “oracle of the dead”βa shrine usually located in caves or next to springs of water believed to be underworld portals.
The team suggests the oil lamps, weapons, vessels, coins and three human skulls were used as part of necromancy ceremonies that took place in the cave. In the photo oil lamps and a bowl
Group of well-preserved and intact oil lamps discovered in Te’omim Cave in the 2012 excavation season
This image shows a map of Te’omim Cave and where the oil lamp and coins were uncovered
“They always contained a shaft leading to the underworld through which the dead could rise,” they say.
Its historical location is already known to have played a role in the history of what is now the Jerusalem Hill Area west of the famous city.
For example, during the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, it served as a hideout for Jewish rebels, but experts believe that the cultists who used the cave were primarily non-Jewish residents of the area.
The team emphasizes the importance of recognizing “magic in the archaeological context” because of its importance to ancient civilizations.
“The identification of the Te’omim Cave as a local oracle (nekyomanteion) and the analysis of the archaeological collection is, in our view, an excellent test case worth investigating within the developing discipline of the archeology of magic” , they conclude.