For a century, archaeologists have wondered why there are no cave paintings in the Levant in general and Israel in particular. The answer now comes from Tel Aviv University researchers: ancient humans didn't paint caves in our region because the large animals depicted in Western European cave paintings had already gone extinct here.
"This is a mystery that has surrounded archaeological research in Israel for 100 years," says Professor Ran Barkai. "The first prehistoric cave was excavated in the country in 1925, but frustratingly, not a single cave painting has been found from then until today. In other regions of the world, like Spain and France, hundreds of breathtakingly beautiful cave paintings have been found, but in this country – nothing."
According to Barkai, the key lies in understanding the purpose of cave paintings. These artworks were created as part of shamanic rituals, performed deep within caves to communicate with supernatural entities about the crisis of disappearing megafauna. In Europe, shortly after modern humans arrived, they witnessed the extinction of crucial prey animals like woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses. This crisis spawned the creation of cave art as a ritualistic response.
However, the situation in the Levant was different. By the time Homo sapiens arrived in what is now Israel, the large animals had already been hunted to extinction by earlier human species. Without these megafauna, the inhabitants adapted to hunting smaller, faster game. This absence of large animals meant there was no extinction crisis to spark the creation of cave paintings.
"In Israel, we don't find such paintings because the large animals went extinct in our region before Homo sapiens arrived here," Barkai explains. "When Homo sapiens arrives in Israel, there are no more elephants and rhinoceroses here, and they are forced to hunt smaller and faster animals. This hypothesis strengthens our general thesis that ancient humans were aware of the role they themselves played in the extinction of their food sources."
