A 19th century sketch of a cave dweller community in Tunisia.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
For many thousands of years humans lived in caves or underground. The oldest known cave dwelling community was at the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa. The earliest human habitation at that cave dates to around 2 million years ago. Researchers found simple stone tools, ash from cooking fires near the cave entrance, and rock engravings.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early humans may have inhabited the Denisova Cave in Siberia as early as 300,000 years ago.
South Africa's Pinnacle Point and Diepkloof Rock Shelter show evidence of human occupation dating to 170,000 years ago.
Over 100,000 years ago two groups of humans interacted in the area of Tinshemet Cave in what is today central Israel. It appears that they may have engaged in cultural exchanges.
The "sem" priests conducted funeral services and presided over mortuary rituals. These were the embalmers who recited prayers to God Father (Ra/Re) and God Son (HR/Horus) while wrapping the mummies. Many of the prayers of the sem priests are found in ancient writings such as the Pyramid Tests (2400-2000 BC) and the Coffin Texts (2000 BC). These texts speak of the hope of bodily resurrection.
A cave dwelling community called Homo naledi lived in South Africa around 250,000 years ago. They buried their dead in underground chambers, cook with fire, and used stone tools. The bones found in the Dinaledi Chamber show the full range of human physical features and represent the largest collection of homo bones found to date in Africa.
The earliest inhabitants of the land of Canaan lived in the many caves which riddled the hills. They buried their dead in the caves. Fifteen individuals were buried in the Qafzeh Cave south of Nazareth. Two of the deceased were buried in red ocher powder, a symbolic blood covering. The remains date to approximately 100,000 years ago.
Evidence of human habitation in the area of Bethlehem between 100,000-10,000 BC is well-attested along the north side of Wadi Khareitun where there are three caves: Iraq al-Ahmar, Umm Qal’a, and Umm Qatafa. These caves were homes in a wooded landscape overlooking a river. At Umm Qatafa archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of the domestic use of fire in Canaan.
The Greeks applied the term "troglodyte" to cave-dwelling peoples in northern Africa and along the Red Sea. Herodotus speaks of a cave-dwelling population in the Upper Nile who were hunted by the Garamantes. The term troglodyte comes from the Greek word troglos, meaning a cave or a hole in the earth, and the Greek verb duein, meaning "to enter".
Many biblical populations lived in caves and some, such as the Nabataeans, built entire cities inside rock shelters. Petra is an example.
Derinkuyu is the largest of 37 underground settlements in the Cappadocia region of Turkey
Some of the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC) were cave dwellers. This is why the Horites are sometimes described as "troglodytes". Some have linked the word "Horite" to the Hebrew root for "hole," חוּר (chur), which is transliterated as "khoor". However, Horite is a reference to a moiety of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. The Horite Hebrew were devotees of Horus. Horite or Ḥōrim (חורים) is a Horus name.
Genesis 36 speaks of the Horite Hebrew who lived in Edom, a region known for caves and mountain settlements. This mountainous region stretched between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. In some texts, it is identified as the land of Seir, the Horite.
The term "troglodye" describes some populations who lived in caves on both sides of the Nile River. Specifically, the term pertains to Hebrew funerary priests who served the royal families of the Nile Valley. These priests lived in chambers attached to the engineered rock tombs of the deceased. They were employed by the families to pray for the souls of their dead loved ones.
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