Flashcards
Untitled
Cards in this deck (8)
- 1—Venus of Berekhat Ram;
•Controversy: carved figurine or natural pebble?
•Small (35 mm /1.4 in) and made of local stone
•Found by archaeologists (Director: Naama Goren-Inbar) between two layers of ash and dated by tephrochronology (study of volcanic ash components) to at least 230,000 years before the present.
•If natural, was it intentionally saved and valued? Or is the “human-ness” a modern perception? - 2—Ain Ghazal Pre-Pottery Neolithic;
Plaster skulls/heads and figurines made of
plastered reeds
– Bitumen paste used to outline eyes and depict
pupils.
– Some of the faces preserve traces of paint.
– The “masks” were made by modeling plaster
over human skulls
Stratified society at 'Ain Ghazal?
• Some people were buried in the floors of their
houses (common in Neolithic Levant).
– Some of the skulls were later removed and
plastered.
• Some people were buried outside the town.
- 3—Nahal Heimar “cult cave”.
Top: glue made from animal skins was
impressed into diamond patterned
“wigs” on skulls.
Bottom: painted limestone stone mask
- 4Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (“PPNB”) LevantSkulls have been discovered at
other sites in the Levant (e.g., Munhata, Tel
Ramad, Nahal Heimar, K'far Hahoresh), and
different styles of plastering were used in each.
• The plastered skulls appear at roughly
around the same time as the development
of an agriculturally based economy.
– Emergence of chiefdoms and stratified
societies?
– Ancestor worship?
– Related to the earlier Mesolithic/PPNA
painted skulls at Göbekli Tepe? - 5—Pottery Neolithic (“PN”)
Important site: Sha'ar Hagolan
• Pottery and Ceramic figurines
• Mammal bones include domestic sheep/goat (29.5%), domestic
pig (22.3%), & domestic cattle (19.9%) bones mixed with wild
gazelle (25%), and fox (3.3%). People were also eating pigeons,
waterfowl, and fish.
• Evidence for trade: obsidian from Turkey; Lebanese greenstone
axes; Mediterranean seashells.
- 6—Sha'ar Hagolan: Female figurines
• Some are made of clay, others carved from
pebbles
• Some are partially painted red.
• Why were they made?
• Fertility charm/idol?
• Mother goddess?
• Representations of ancestors? Made for an
ancestor cult?
• Ancient “barbie dolls” for children?
- 7—“Pillar Figurines” have also been
found, one with male genitals
Numerous figurines represent
animals.
- 8—
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- Flashcards on Untitled, created by Sean Okpoebo on 24/10/2021.
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- Sean Okpoebo
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