Excarnation: Food For Vultures

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For nearly a century before the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., Jews, especially in the Jerusalem area, would inter the bones of their deceased in stone boxes, or ossuaries, about 2 feet long and a foot high. The ossuary had to be long enough to accommodate the longest bone in the body, usually the femur. Children’s ossuaries were accordingly shorter. Many of the ossuaries were inscribed or decorated. Hundreds of them have been recovered.

Interment in the ossuary involved only the bones and, for this reason, would not occur until about a year after an individual’s death, when the flesh had desiccated and fallen away from the corpse, leaving only the bones. For the first year the deceased was interred in a loculus (plural loculi; Hebrew, koch, plural kochim), a 6-foot-long hole or cavity carved into the wall of a burial cave. There (or on a stone bench in the cave), the body of the deceased would repose until it was ready for the ossuary.

At only one other time in the ancient Near East do we find the use of these bone depositories we call ossuaries. This was in the Chalcolithic period (c. 4500–3500 B.C.E.),^a about 4,000 years before Jerusalem Jews started placing the bones 041 042 of their deceased in ossuaries. Evidence of the Chalcolithic culture has been found in the Golan, near the Dead Sea, near Beersheba, in the Galilee and even along the coast. The Chalcolithic ossuaries are somewhat larger than the Jewish ones and are made of clay rather than stone. They look something like small houses, often with openings in the front that seem to mimic doorways. The fronts are often decorated with facial features and painted with dark brown stripes.

As indicated above, we know the process by which the bodies of deceased Jews at the turn of the era were reduced to mere bones so they could fit into ossuaries. But how did this process occur during the Chalcolithic period? This is a question that is only rarely asked and never answered. I think I know how it was done.

My aim, however, is broader than this. In presenting my theory for how the Chalcolithic people reduced the bodies of their dead to bones, I hope to explore a broader range of fields and explanations. As the scientist and philosopher Stephen Hawking has stated in The Grand Design, a model is a good model if it: (1) is elegant; (2) contains few arbitrary or adjustable elements; (3) agrees with and explains all existing observations; (4) makes detailed predictions about future observations that could disprove or falsify the model if they are not borne out.¹

I think all four rules apply to my model, although some will find the practice I suggest not so elegant, and this is perhaps due to our Biblical upbringing. Even the fourth rule applies, despite the fact that 043 as an archaeologist I find it difficult to predict the past, let alone the future.

For example, if my model is correct, it will also solve a long-standing archaeological puzzle—the function of Rogem Hiri in the Golan Heights, one of the strangest Chalcolithic structures ever discovered.

Until the Six-Day War in 1967, Rogem Hiri seems to have been unknown to professional archaeology. The site, located about 10 miles east of the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, consists of four concentric stone-built circles, the largest and outermost of which measures nearly a third of a mile in circumference. In the center of the circles is a large, deliberate pile of stones, also known as a cairn (Hebrew, rogem). According to one estimate, Rogem Hiri contains more than 125,000 cubic feet of stone. The site was finally excavated between 1989 and 1992 by Moshe Kochavi and Yonathan Mizrachi as part of the Land of Geshur Project of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University.^b

The concentric circles of Rogem Hiri may appear to be simple heaps of stones, but they are actually the remains of stone walls that are preserved in places to a height of 6 feet. Near the center of the structure, the walls are preserved to a height of 15 to 18 feet. The width of the walls varies. The outer wall is 14 feet wide. The first inner wall is 12 feet wide, the next 6 feet and the innermost wall is only 5 feet wide. This suggests that the stone foundations supported a mudbrick wall whose height varied according to the width of the foundation walls. It is reasonable to think that the outer wall was the highest and probably rose to about 30 feet. The inner mudbrick walls were not as high, and likely became progressively lower toward the structure’s center.

This is an important feature of the structure since, as I will later suggest, birds sitting on the top of the outer wall would have been able to see into the center of the structure, as would birds resting on the lower walls toward the center.

The heap of large stones in the center of the site is about 65 feet in diameter and was covered by a layer of small and medium-sized stones. At the core of this stone pile is a dolmen, or burial monument, consisting of two huge, 5-foot-tall standing stones supporting an equally massive horizontal stone. Beneath the dolmen is a chamber that is accessed via a 10-foot-long corridor.

I do not doubt that the excavators are correct in concluding that in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3300–2300 B.C.E.) and in the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 B.C.E.) this feature was a tomb. The corridor leading to the center of the cairn contained pottery and other datable objects from both these periods. There was an earlier phase to the site, however—a Chalcolithic phase; and we know this despite the fact that no Chalcolithic artifacts were found.

It is clear that the structure originated in the Chalcolithic since the original phase of construction was earlier than the two later phases of construction with Bronze Age finds. In addition, another important Chalcolithic site, Rasm Ḥarbush, was excavated by Claire Epstein, the late doyenne of Chalcolithic studies, only 2 miles from Rogem Hiri. This is one of several small Chalcolithic settlements scattered across the central Golan that consist of chains of broadroom houses. More recently, a number of Chalcolithic sites have been discovered in the immediate vicinity of Rogem Hiri, including a similar circular structure that was later dismantled.²

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What, then, was this odd structure used for in the Chalcolithic period?

Archaeologist Mattanyah Zohar has suggested that Rogem Hiri was built as a Chalcolithic sanctuary, associated with the many nearby Chalcolithic sites.³ Then, during the Early Bronze Age, it developed into a structure where some annual ceremony was observed by a largely nomadic population. Although Zohar associates the structure with the general development of megalithic monuments in use from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age, he does not specify the particular function of the structure except to suggest that it served as a sanctuary. I think it was a very specific kind of sanctuary in the Chalcolithic period.

When this intriguing site was explored a couple of decades ago, interest in archaeoastronomy (i.e., how ancient peoples understood and made use of astronomical phenomena) was at its peak; books like Stonehenge Decoded and Megalithic Sites in Britain had recently been published⁴ and had a profound impact on Israeli scholars studying Rogem Hiri. Many regarded the site as an ancient observatory for astronomical phenomena. Scholars and volunteers spent the dawns of many equinoxes and other significant dates watching the sun rise in an attempt to decipher the mechanism of this mystery. No compelling explanation was found, however, and nothing definitive or even convincing was shown.

One of the most tantalizing aspects of the Golan’s Chalcolithic culture is the fact that despite thorough 045 and intensive surveys carried out by Epstein and her colleagues, no cemeteries or individual burials dating to this period have ever been discovered. This is how Epstein summarizes the matter:

It is a matter of no little surprise that insofar as the Golan is concerned, nothing has been discovered to date that could throw light on this area of activity [i.e., burials]. This lacuna is all the more difficult to explain in view of the great importance attached during the Chalcolithic period to funerary practices, associated for the most part with secondary [ossuary] burials. This is borne out by the many ossuary sites, including several discovered comparatively recently…Ever since [E.L.] Sukenik’s work at Hadera…it has become abundantly clear that this was a period in which great attention was paid to the disposal of the dead and accompanying burial rites. How, then, to interpret the complete lack of evidence in this sphere in the Golan?…Yet no indication of the manner or place of interment has so far come to light and the enigma must remain unsolved until such time as the location of the cemeteries of those who lived in the Golan are discovered—possibly, beyond its present confines.⁵

Is it possible that Rogem Hiri had some funerary function? I believe that the site was not only funerary in nature, but that it was specifically used for the practice of excarnation. Excarnation (the opposite of incarnation) is the technical archaeological term for the process by which a body was deprived of its human form—that is, how an ancient corpse was divested of its flesh. Also known as “sky burial,” excarnation was widely practiced in cultures and civilizations that for one reason or another were interested in the bones of the deceased and not their flesh. During the Chalcolithic period, excarnation allowed bones to be buried in ossuaries.

In many cultures, excarnation was accomplished using birds of prey that consumed the flesh of the exposed corpse. Anthropological observations at Zoroastrian excarnation sites (called “towers of silence” [dokhmas]) reveal that vultures can consume a corpse in as little as an hour and a half. With the help of birds of prey, there is no need to wait a full year for the body to decompose, as was the case with Jewish ossuary burials from the turn of the era.

Rogem Hiri is similar to the Zoroastrian dokhmas. It has high walls, no windows and a single gate. The high walls would have provided a place for the vultures to sit.

Rogem Hiri was apparently not the only round structure used for this purpose. Near Bethsaida, north of the Sea of Galilee, where my team is excavating,^c we identified a structure consisting of concentric stone circles on a promontory overlooking the Jordan River. The outer circle is about 160 feet in diameter and the inner circle is about 110 feet in diameter. In the center is a single large boulder, large enough to lay a body on. This structure probably functioned as an excarnation site as well.

Other round structures (without any trace of roofs) were discovered at Shiqmim in the northern Negev and more recently at the site of Palmaḥim south of Tel Aviv. In the latter, only ossuaries were found, indicating that after the flesh was consumed, the bones were collected and placed in the ossuaries.

Chalcolithic finds discovered among the hoard from the Nahal Mishmar cave near the Dead Sea 046 047 (also known as the Cave of the Treasure^d) lend significant support to this hypothesis. The artifacts in this hoard are made mostly of copper but also of hematite, ivory and stone, and reflect both a surprisingly sophisticated artistic sense as well as the use of advanced refining techniques and production facilities. The hoard was wrapped in a mat, which was dated by carbon-14 (radiocarbon) tests to the Chalcolithic period.

Already at the time of the discovery it was noted that these objects must have served some religious purpose; they were not for any utilitarian use. For example, the hoard includes small copper jars that look strikingly similar to the large clay pithoi used for grain storage in this period. Similarly, the large number of mace heads, some decorated, would not appear to be useful weapons and were therefore most probably used during processions. And the so-called “crowns,” made of pure copper, could not have been actual crowns. They are only 3.5 inches in diameter and wouldn’t have been able to fit anyone’s head. A relatively wide opening serves as an entrance gate into these “crowns.” It is becoming increasingly obvious that, similar to other finds in the hoard, these “crowns” represent miniature, symbolic versions of actual round structures.

It was long ago suggested by Rivka Gonen that the decorated gates of these “crowns” signified 048 “the gates of the netherworld.”⁶ That the crowns represent round structures similar to actual structures like Rogem Hiri seems obvious. The key to understanding these crowns is on the rim. The rim of one “crown” is decorated with ibex heads and birds! The birds perched on the rim of the “crown” indicate the function of the actual round structures: excarnation.

This suggestion is supported by the appearance of other Chalcolithic objects, including a ceramic bowl with birds adorning the rim and a copper standard in the form of a vulture.

Scholarly research indicates that the Chalcolithic peoples of the Levant migrated from the region of southern Turkey, based on similarity of material culture.⁷ And indeed excarnation was practiced there in both the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The famous British archaeologist James Mellaart reported in the late 1960s the discovery of a vulture shrine at the important Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk in southeast Turkey. The murals of the shrine feature vultures in the process of excarnation.^{e 8}

Burial customs radically changed with the advent of urban society in the Early Bronze Age, however, and excarnation appears to have been abandoned. But though far removed from the Chalcolithic period, both the Canaanite Ugaritic literature and the Hebrew Bible seem to retain some vague memories of excarnation. Certainly, the details and the reasons for the ritual were not remembered, but the core of the practice—consumption of the flesh by vultures—was vividly recalled. In the Ugaritic story of Danel, for example, Danel’s son Aqhat is killed and his corpse is feasted upon by vultures.^f Danel then spends the rest of the story hunting Samal, “the queen of all vultures,” and finds in her gizzards the remains of his son.

A negative attitude is also reflected in the Bible. Excarnation by vultures or other birds of prey was considered the most disgraceful death, reserved only for the most abhorrent persons. Similarly, executed criminals were not simply buried but were further punished by having their bodies exposed to vultures 049 and scavengers. According to Biblical law, birds of prey are deemed unclean and it is forbidden to eat them (Leviticus 11:13–19; Deuteronomy 14:12–19).

The story preserved in 2 Samuel 21:1–12 tells of a drought in the time of King David that lasted three years. The drought was the result of Saul’s bloodguilt: The Israelites had promised the Gibeonites they would be allowed to continue to live in the land of Israel, but Saul had put a number of Gibeonites to death. When King David summoned some of the remaining Gibeonites, they demanded that seven men from Saul’s house be handed over to them. When David did so, the Gibeonites killed them. Among the dead were two sons of Saul by his concubine Rizpah. Fearing further disgrace to the bodies of her sons, Rizpah “did not let the birds of the sky settle on them by day or the wild beasts by night” (2 Samuel 21:10).

Nothing worse could happen to a corpse than being eaten by birds of prey. Indeed, it was a common threat: Enemies would terrify each other with threats that they would leave the unburied corpses of the other to be scavenged by birds of prey. The giant Goliath, for example, sought to intimidate the seemingly unarmed David with the threat that his carcass would be left exposed to birds of prey (1 Samuel 17:44). David returns the threat in kind:

You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you and cut off your head; and I will give your carcass and the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of prey and the beasts of the earth (1 Samuel 17:45–46).

Among the curses that the Lord pronounces if the Israelites do not obey his commandments, they will be killed by their enemies and their corpses “will become food for all the birds of the air [or birds of prey]” (Deuteronomy 28:25–26).

What was good for the Chalcolithic people—at Rogem Hiri and other sites—was, it seems, an unbearable disgrace for the Israelites.

For nearly a century before the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., Jews, especially in the Jerusalem area, would inter the bones of their deceased in stone boxes, or ossuaries, about 2 feet long and a foot high. The ossuary had to be long enough to accommodate the longest bone in the body, usually the femur. Children’s ossuaries were accordingly shorter. Many of the ossuaries were inscribed or decorated. Hundreds of them have been recovered. Interment in the ossuary involved only the bones and, for this reason, would not occur until about a year after an individual’s death, […]