'World's oldest village' excavated in Israel
Israeli archeologists have found what could be the world's oldest village on the dried-out bed of the Sea of Galilee.
The 20,000-year-old settlement came to light in one of the worst droughts in recent years.
Thousands of items including huts, tools and fireplaces found at Ohalo, on the south-western shore, give a unique insight into the semi-nomadic people who lived there towards the end of the early Stone Age.
"We found what every researcher dreams of finding," said Dani Nadel, who leads the Haifa University excavation team.
"Items used in everyday life, and small artefacts that tell us things we never even dreamed about in regard to the technology, society and environment of these people."
The items are in almost perfect condition because the water that covered them prevented decay.
Mr Nadel said the large quantities of seeds and other organic materials meant carbon testing could be used to date them accurately.
The brush huts - less than 2ft apart - were made with branches of oak and tamarisk trees, with the cracks stuffed with shrubs and grasses.
"These nomads ate mostly fish and fruit," Mr Nadel said. "We are talking about 9,000 years before the beginning of agriculture, before the domestication of animals or plants.
"But we did find hundreds of thousands of fish bones, so they were fishermen. They also knew how to hunt water fowl, ravens, birds of prey, and even animals like the gazelle, fallow deer, fox, hare and turtle."
The team also found the skeleton of a man. Aged about 40 when he died and just over 5ft tall, he had his hands folded across his chest, reports the Sunday Times.
