Skull Found in Palestine Substan Tiates Biblical History

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

Speculation aroused by the recent discovery of the skull of a Neauderthal man in the cave of Tabgha, near Tiberias, has served again to focus attention upon the harmony between the findings of archaeology and the Biblical account of the history of man in Palestine.

The recent find at Tabgha was described by Professor Garstang, Director of the British School of Archaeology, Jerusalem, as follows:

“The front part of a primitive human skull has been discovered during excavations by Mr. Turville-Petre in a cave at Tabgha, near Tiberias, among well-defined Mousterian flint deposits. The new Tabgha skull is characterized by a prodigious development of the supra-orbital prominences and depressed forehead as in a chimpanzee, and conforms closely with the Neanderthal European type not previously found on the continent of Asia.”

This discovery, while undoubtedly important, is not astonishing since carved stones found in Palestine have long since furnished apodictical evidence of the presence of primitive man here. The finds coincide with the Biblical narrative. When Abraham went from Mesopotamia to the mountains of Canaan he found there a population dwelling, for the most part, in towns. This was at the beginning of the second bronze age. The country at that time had been inhabited for centuries but the Bible mentions other peoples who inhabited the land before the Canaanites. Notable among these earlier races were the Rephair of whom only the name remains. They constitute, a link in the chain leading to the origin of man. The carved stones found everywhere in Palestine are evidences of the activities of these prehistoric races.