Headline screams:
Ancient Murder Mystery? Stone Age Bodies Discovered in Well
Who wouldn’t click on that?!?
Well, it’s not as interesting as the headline suggests.
More than 8,000 years ago, a 19-year-old woman and a slightly older man fell — or were they pushed? — into a well. Archaeologists have now uncovered the remains, revealing a Stone Age mystery.
No one knows whether the couple fell into the well by accident or whether foul play was involved, but archaeologists say the choice of final resting place closed the water source for good.
“What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable,” Toyam Tepper, the excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.
Dang. I hate it when the headline so barely resembles the content. Well, as a former ad writer, I suppose I’m the pot calling the kettle black. But hey, I’m a reformed ad writer so I can harp on so called hard news writers (particularly the “LiveScience Senior Writer”) utilizing MY techniques to pull in eyeballs.
But I’m not feeling that sanctimonious today. I’m simply disappointed at this so-called murder mystery. This part was interesting, though:
The well is about 26 feet (8 meters) deep, with a top made of stone and a bottom sunk into the bedrock. At its mouth, the well is about 4 feet (1.3 m) wide.
The two skeletons weren’t the only artifacts inside the wall. Archaeologists also found flint blades used for harvesting, stone arrowheads and other tools. Over the centuries, animals’ bones and charcoal accumulated in the closed well, remnants that will help researchers date the structure more precisely.
“The well that was exposed in the Jezreel Valley reflects the impressive quarrying ability of the site’s ancient inhabitants and the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the local hydrology and geology, which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table,” Tepper said. “No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that lasted a long time.”
