Stone Age Church Bells
They were among the first Stone Age humans to abandon the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in favour of living in settled villages around 15,000 years ago.
Now archaeologists have discovered the Natufian culture that lived in the Levant in modern-day Israel may also have pioneered the concept of church bells to summon the community together.
Researchers have discovered strangely shaped boulders they believe were used as ceremonial ‘gongs’ that were pounded during burial ceremonies.
The giant stones were thought to have been used as mortars to pound food but scientists have found the action would also have produced a distinctive sound audible for miles around.
They argue the boulders, which are around three feet (90cm) high and weigh more than 15 stone (95kg), would have served as a way of increasing cohesion and identity within the community.
They say pounding on the boulders would have informed members of adjacent communities that an important ceremony was taking place – much like modern church bells.
Dr Danny Rosenberg, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa who was one of the team involved in the study, said: ‘The size and weight of the boulders shows that they were not intended to be mobile.
‘The fact that some of them were buried suggests that they were supposed to remain in place as part of the “furniture” of the burial site, or in the burial context itself.
‘This point emphasises that they were not created for everyday eating purposes, but formed an integral part of the ceremonies and occurrences in the areas in which the Natufians buried their dead.’
The Natufian culture is thought to be one of the first groups of people to live in fixed settlements before the introduction of agriculture.
Several sites dated between 15,000 and 11,000 years old have been found in Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon
They are credited with being one of the first cultures to have begun domesticating plants.
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