Unveiling Archaeology’s Neolithic ‘Big Bang’: 9,000-Year-Old City Discovered Near Jerusalem Promises Ancient Mysteries

Excavation of prehistoric city offers glimpse into ancient living near Jerusalem (Photo: Antiquities Authority)

The 9,000-year-old metropolis — pre-dating both Britain’s Stonehenge and ancient Egypt’s pyramids — was uncovered during a survey before the construction of a new highway, is one of the biggest ever found, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Tuesday.

See the 9,000-year-old settlement discovered in Israel

The team estimated a population between 2,000 and 3,000 people, which would have constituted a large city for the time.

It covered dozens of hectares near what is today the town of Motza, some five kilometres west of Jerusalem.

Men dig in marked out square spaces, uncovering a small stone structure.

The excavation exposed large buildings, alleyways and burial places.(Israel Antiquities Authority: Yaniv Berman)

Jacob Vardi, co-director of the excavations at Motza on behalf of the authority, told The Times of Israel that the find gives archaeologists their “big bang” moment.

The ancient settlement was unearthed by archaeologists searching a patch of land which will eventually become a road to connect Jerusalem to the city of Motza

“It’s a game changer, a site that will drastically shift what we know about the Neolithic era,” Mr Vardi said.

He explained that the Neolithic period was a time where “more and more” human populations curbed migration and transitioned to permanent settlements.

The 9,000 year old site has revealed large buildings, flint tools, including thousands of arrowheads (pictured), axes for chopping down trees, sickle blades and knives - proving the city was a bustling hub of complex society

Site touted as the Middle East’s largest Neolithic find

A stone figurine the size of a thumb depicts a human face, which is held close to the camera and held between a person's hands.

A small figurine depicting a human face was found by the team.(Reuters: Nir Elias)

Before the discovery, it was widely believed the entire area had been uninhabited in that period, during which people were shifting away from hunting for survival to a more sedentary lifestyle that included farming.

Part of an excavation site where a huge prehistoric settlement was discovered by Israeli archaeologists, is seen in the town of Motza near Jerusalem. The archaeological team discovered large buildings, including rooms that were used for living, as well as public facilities and places of ritual

“This is most probably the largest excavation of this time period in the Middle East, which will allow the research to advance leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today, just by the amount of material that we are able to save and preserve from this site,” said Lauren Davis, an archaeologist with Israel’s antiquities authority.

A bird's eye view photo shows a skeleton slightly revealed in brown soil.

Ancient burial sites in the city showed advanced levels of planning.(Facebook: Israel Antiquities Authority)

The excavation exposed large buildings, alleyways and burial places, evidence of a relatively advanced level of planning, the antiquities authority said in a statement.

The team also found storage sheds that contained large quantities of legumes, particularly lentils, whose seeds were remarkably preserved throughout the millennia.ư

Trays with findings from the archaeological excavation site of a settlement from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age), discovered during archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Motza Junction, about 5km west of Jerusalem

“This finding is evidence of an intensive practice of agriculture,” the statement read.

“Animal bones found on the site show that the settlement’s residents became increasingly specialised in sheep-keeping, while the use of hunting for survival gradually decreased”.

Also found were flint tools, including thousands of arrowheads, axes for chopping down trees, sickle blades and knives.

If date estimates are correct, this civilisation’s form of agriculture would also pre-date that of Victoria’s Gunditjmara people, who created an elaborate series of channels and pools to harvest eels 6,600 years ago.