Archaeologists examined 11 simple tombs and 20 tumulus tombs – the so-called tomb in the form of a mound with a burial chamber. The cemetery overlooking the modern city was used for over a thousand years in the VI-V millenniums BC (about 5450-4250 BC). Radiocarbon dating was performed on the coal residues found on it.

According to scientists, the original burials were simple burials, and after the bodies were dismembered inside, the bones were placed in the tumuli with their burial equipment. A study of the remains showed that all members of the community over the age of five were treated in this way.

The remains of several individuals were found in several burial chambers with a diameter of one and a half to three meters. Excavation leader Uzi Avner believes these are family tombs. In other tombs, there are separate burial chambers for each buried person. In some cases, several tumuli were linked, possibly due to family expansion.

Ancient burial / Uzi Avner

Grave items include stone tools – arrowheads, scrapers, whetstones and sandstone bowls. The two bowls are decorated with geometric relief patterns.

Researchers also found early pottery, sheep and goat bones, wild animals, birds, and many small items, from shells and pieces of coral to minerals, semi-precious stones and beads.

Most beads are made from seashells. But some clearly came from afar: at least these are the first examples of necklaces made of glazed ceramics and steatite (also known as soapstone or talc chloride). These necklaces may have been brought from Mesopotamia.

Funeral instruments / Photo Uzi Anver

Funeral inventory:

1. shell ornaments;
2. tile and steatite necklaces;
3. flint scrapers;
4. Seashells, corals from the Bay of Eilat;
5. minerals.

Archaeologists also found a piece of red realgar (arsenic ore) from Anatolia and a copper bead in the Levant that may be one of the earliest known objects melted from metal.

Two stone-paved rooms were found to the east of the tombs and the main part of the tombs. In the middle of one of them was the remains of a juniper tree trunk. The preserved wooden idol is small in length – about 30 centimeters. Juniper does not grow around Eilat: the trunk was probably brought to this place from the mountains of modern Jordan.

Juniper trunk fragment / Photograph Uzi Anver

This isn’t the first time juniper stem remains have been discovered in places that clearly had a cultic purpose. Juniper is known to be one of the symbols of the fertility goddess Ashera.

Inscriptions from two places in southern Palestine show her also being worshiped as the wife of Yahweh. In the Old Testament, the word “asher” was used not only to denote the goddess herself, but also to denote a wooden cult object associated with her worship.

The presence of a juniper tree trunk proves that this place was reserved for Aseri worship. Based on Carbon-14, it has been dated to 4540 BC, making it the oldest surviving idol of Asher known today.