Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Hai College have discovered engravings in ancient and unknown culture in the Galilee and the Golan • Estimated: Painted 4,000 years ago

• Illustration to illustrate the murals in Dolman in a Jewish nature reserve. Figure: Hagit Tahan, Israel Antiquities Authority

  Photo: 

  Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority

Has an ancient mysterious culture been discovered in the north of the country? In a recent study, researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Hai Academic College recently uncovered a wall engraving, which was unexpectedly discovered in a Jewish nature reserve. The engravings, found on huge tombs of about 4,200 years known as "dolmen," open a window into the mysterious artistic world of ancient masonry culture. 

The article points to four different sites, in which the dolmen builders painted artistic motifs on the walls of the huge buildings that they erected. The millions of travelers who visit the Jewish Nature Reserve must not have imagined that just below their noses, at the heart of the route, is a key to understanding the world of ancient mysterious masonry culture.    

Photo: Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority

The study revealed four dolmens, huge burial structures built of rock, the Galilee and the Golan, in which the builders left artistic motifs on the walls. The art of the unearthed rock first sheds light on the worlds of the ancient civilizations who founded them. In Dolman in a Jewish reserve, an inspector of the Nature and Parks Authority identified the engraved animals of horned animals such as moose, fertilizers and wild cows. In another Dolman, the giant cover stone was designed as a human face, and in another Dolman a variety of geometric shapes engraved in the rock was discovered. 

The dolmens are one of the most impressive archeological phenomena in the Land of Israel. It is common for most scholars that these huge stone structures were erected during the Middle Bronze Age, 4,000-4,500 years ago. Hundreds of dolmens were surveyed in the Upper Galilee and in the Golan, but to date, the dolmens and the civilians who established them have not received the proper attention. In recent years there has been renewed interest in the study of dolmens in the Middle East, and the research is yielding new and exciting discoveries.   

According to Prof. Gonen Sharon, head of the graduate program in Galilee studies at Tel Hai Academic College, who co-authored the article with Uri Berger of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "A few years ago a panel with murals was discovered inside a huge dolmen in a field around Kibbutz Shamir. This is the first time rock art has been documented in the context of dolmens in the Middle East. Following this discovery, we launched a research project to locate and document art in Dolmen throughout the Land of Israel. We surveyed dozens of dolmens across the Upper Galilee and the Golan in an attempt to expose the world of this mysterious culture, which took place over 4,000 years ago, leaving only dolmens as evidence of their rich culture. " 

Uri Berger, an Upper Galilee archaeologist in the Israel Antiquities Authority, added: "To date, many dolmens have been found in the country and neighboring countries, but we knew almost nothing about this super-masonry civilization, beyond the tremendous building remains they left behind as evidence of their existence in the area. The rock engravings open to us, for the first time, a glimpse into a culture that is in the background of the establishment of the dolmens. " 

"In Kiryat Shmona is a huge rock, which was used for roofing a burial chamber and designed as a human face. In the Jewish nature reserve in the Golan Heights, Paula Foley, a superintendent of the Nature and Parks Authority, contacted us after identifying her engravings in Dolman. Carved on the walls of the burial chamber. "    

The joint study by Uri Berger and Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel Hai Academic College is slowly removing the mystery that exists around the same culture that is responsible for one of the largest construction projects, yet the least recognized in Israeli history. With the new revelations in Dolmen, it will be possible, perhaps, to begin to identify the set of beliefs, worldviews, and the social order of the mysterious population.