Kokhim Cave is situated in the Naḥal Namer gorge Israel's western Upper Galilee region. This area contains several karstic caves formed by large quantities of water that run off Ha-Sulam (Ladder) Ridge. Like most of the caves located here, it is very difficult to reach. It is situated under a cliff overhang, which excavators reached by ascending on ropes installed by a team that first abseiled and traversed the rock horizontally to attach anchoring points in the cave entrance.
The cave has two openings and two floor levels and measures c. 1 m wide and 4 m deep. Its height varies from about 2 m near the lower entranceto less than 1.70 m at the far end. The cave floor was found covered by a layer of very fine dark soil, 15–40 cm deep, with thousands of bones of small rodents, the remains of regurgitated pellets of birds of prey. Inside were found 17 intact or almost complete pottery vessels, partly buried in the soil, laying on their side in no apparent order. These included three imported Aegean transport amphoras, 16 Phoenician semi-fine baggy jars - probably in this instance used as water jars, one saucer, one cooking pot, and two wide-mouthed juglets. The saucer may have served as a lid for whichever water jar was open and in use. The two juglets may have been used as receptacles for wine and water, respectively. Together the array can be dated to the middle of the second century BCE. Petrographic analyses indicate that, except for the transport amphoras and the cooking pot, the remaining vessels come from the area of Tyre, on the coast. This is also the likliest origin for the people who used this cave as a place of refuge in the 2nd c. BCE, which was a time of military upheaval in the area.*
Adapted from Shivtiel, Syon, and Berlin 2021.
