MP Gallery #4c - HK86b, Har Karkom, Israel, Paleolithic Sanctuary, MP-UP Transition, c. 47-38,000 BP

Comment: Har Karkom site 86b "The Paleolithic Sanctuary" was discovered, surveyed and studied by Emmanuel Anati and the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, Capo di Ponte (BS), Italy (http://www.harkarkom.com/Hkcorpus1-99.php).

It is one of the most extraordinarily Paleolithic palaeoart sites in the world. It is situated on the eastern, sunrise, facing side of the Har Karkom mesa, near the cliff edge with a panoramic view. The Jordanian hills are visible on the horizon. Early, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic sites occur all around the area. Just over the edge of the cliff is a flint quarry. The Sanctuary comprises of a spiral or concentric circles of standing stones, mostly of large pieces of fluid shaped tabular flint from the nearby quarry. The standing stones are set in a depression; vegetation--which is exceedinly rare on the Karkom plateau--and a rockhole (or dry spring) add to its aura. Due west in the distance are two hills, the 'twin peaks' of the mesa top. The Sanctuary evokes the entire landscape as the female body, the birthgiver and lifegiver, the 'rebirth-giver'. The feeling-tone of the sanctuary is awesome and uncanny.

This is the third in a series of image galleries on the Sanctuary. This gallery presents natural flint figurines that are lying flat on the ground among the standing stones (stelae). Some of these have flaking and retouch. I also show two photos of the flint quarry just over the edge of the cliff.

Photo © James Harrod; Emmanuel Anati, CCSP; or as otherwise cited. All James Harrod site photos taken on Emmanuel Anati Har Karkom Expedition, April 1996
4/3/1996