An ancient ritual compound has come to light in the deepest, darkest part of a cave located in what’s now northern Israel.

Homo sapiens groups assembled at the cave to hold torchlit ceremonies, probably inspired by mythological or religious beliefs, as early as around 37,000 years ago, researchers report December 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery of this special chamber in Manot Cave unveils the earliest known evidence for collective ritual practices in the Middle East, say archaeologist Omry Barzilai of the University of Haifa and colleagues. As many as around 100 individuals could have fit in this space, they estimate.

Manot Cave’s ritual compound resembles an even older cave chamber discovered in France. Neandertals built circular structures out of broken rock formations inside Bruniquel Cave about 176,500 years ago, although it’s unclear what activities occurred there (SN: 5/25/16). European Neandertals and H. sapiens also painted and drew on cave walls 40,000 years ago or more (SN: 1/27/23).

“The apparent concern with creating a bounded space in the depths of a cave is shared [by Middle Eastern H. sapiens] with Neandertals and early Homo sapiens in Europe,” says archaeologist Paul Pettitt of Durham University in England. Activities outside of the daily grind, such as rituals attended by regional groups of hunter-gatherers, may have occurred in caves before anyone decorated cave walls, Pettitt suggests.

Stone tools, butchered animal bones and other items previously excavated at various spots near Manot Cave’s entrance point to regular human occupations from about 46,000 to 33,000 years ago. That encompasses the time during which collective rituals occurred at the back of the cave. Earlier fossil finds put H. sapiens at this cave at least 50,000 years ago (SN: 1/28/15).

Activity in the ritual chamber dates to a time when artifacts in the living areas display influences of Europe’s ancient Aurignacian culture. Distinctive stone tools, bone points, ivory beads and figurines, and early examples of cave art characterized Aurignacian groups. “Manot Cave’s ritual compound is associated with incoming Aurignacian populations from Europe, likely reflecting their established ritual traditions,” Barzilai says.

Excellent natural acoustics made this cave space a prime spot for holding group ceremonies, he adds.

A row of slender, natural rock formations rising from the cave floor stand guard just outside Manot Cave’s rear chamber. A round boulder placed in a niche just inside the chamber displays engraved lines that create a three-dimensional representation of a tortoise’s shell, Barzilai says. Microscopic marks inside the V-shaped grooves indicate that someone carved them on the boulder using sharp stones.

Barzilai suspects that collective rituals at Manot Cave revolved around the tortoise shell replica. The spiritual meanings of tortoises to ancient Middle Easterners, who collected the slow-moving creatures to supplement their diets, remain unknown. But tortoise shells increasingly appeared in the graves of prominent individuals in this region near the end of the Stone Age (SN: 11/3/08).

Barzilai’s group generated a minimum estimated age for the engraving by analyzing the decay rate of radioactive uranium in a thin mineral crust that had formed on the boulder. Researchers currently debate the accuracy of this technique for dating cave paintings (SN: 10/28/19). A close match of the mineral crust’s chemical makeup to that of previously dated rock formations in the cave helped to narrow down the age estimate to between roughly 37,000 and 35,000 years ago.

A mineral layer that had formed on a deer antler found on the chamber floor dated to around the same time. The researchers identified several small, human-made incisions on the antler.

Wood ash particles detected in a rock formation inside the chamber indicated that visitors had illuminated the pitch-black space with torches. Investigators found no remnants of fire pits.