Where are the Children? Age-dependent Burial Practices in Peqicin

The cave in Peqfin is an impressive stalagmite cave situated in the Upper Galilee (Fig. 1, p. 28). Excavated in 1995, it was used for secondary burial during the Chalcolithic period.1 Due to destructive human interference probably before the end of the Chalcolithic period, most of the skeletal remains were removed from their original contexts and were thus found strewn indiscriminately throughout the entire cave. The retrieved bones are well preserved, the majority covered with thick layers of patina. Although the cave was not fully excavated, the human skeletal remains constitute the largest bone sample ever studied from this period in Israel. It should be noted that no Chalcolithic village site has yet been found in close proximity to the cave, and certainly none large enough to account for the large population buried in the cave, suggesting that the cave served as a central, and possibly sacred, burial repository.2