Murder Mystery Surrounds Skeletons in Ancient Israel Well

By Alisa Odenheimer on November 08, 2012

Archaeologists are facing a possible murder mystery after discovering two 8,500-year-old human skeletons at the bottom of a rare Stone-Age well used by the first farmers in Israel’s Jezreel Valley.

The skeletal remains belonged to a woman aged about 19 and an older man, according to archaeologists who announced the discovery today in an e-mailed release. The well dates back to the Neolithic period, they said.

“How did they come to be in the well?” the Israel Antiquities Authority asked in the statement. “Was this an accident or perhaps a murder? As of now, the answer to this question remains a mystery.”

The excavation of ancient wells is critical to understanding the culture and economy of a period before the invention of pottery vessels and metallic objects, Omri Barzilai, head of the Prehistory Branch of the IAA, said.

The two oldest wells in the world were uncovered in Cyprus, and are about 1,000 years older than this one, according to the IAA. The Jezreel Valley well is the second from its period discovered in Israel, it said.

“The impressive well was connected to an ancient farming settlement, and it seems the inhabitants used it for their subsistence and living,” Yotam Tepper, the site’s excavation director said. “After these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used, for the simple reason that the water was contaminated.”

Sickle Blades

Objects found inside the well include flint sickle blades used for harvesting, arrowheads and stone tools, he said.

The well shows the quarrying ability of the site’s ancient inhabitants and the knowledge they had of local hydrology and geology, which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table, Tepper said.

“No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that took a long time,” he said.

The well, which was uncovered in excavations before the enlarging of a highway by the National Roads Company, will be conserved and exhibited.

***********************************************************

I think the man and the woman were sacrifices, therefore, not precisely murder as we define it today in the Western world. The clue, or should I say clues, are the presence of flint sicle blades, arrowheads and stone tools found INSIDE THE WELL. It took a lot of effort to make these tools and implements back in the Stone Age, and one did not just casually toss them into the neighborhood well for the heck of it! One did not casually toss people into wells either. As the article noted, their bodies would have contaminated the water. Now, if the locals didn't KNOW that would be the result from throwing a couple of people into their water source, perhaps many of them died from drinking contaminated water after the fact. Did they have another water source? Did they move away and this was a final propitiating sacrifice to the Goddess of the Well or the Goddess of the Waters? Wonder what future excavation will reveal...