15,000-year-old clay figurines: prehistoric Near East revised

Clay objects well before the Neolithic

Until now, the known Natufian figurines were mainly carved from bone or stone. Archaeologists believed clay only became a symbolic medium with the agricultural revolution, from about 11,500 years ago. The new pieces, from three sites in present-day Israel, upset this chronology and force a reconsideration of the role of material in the first sedentary societies.

According to the study published in PLOS One, these objects date from a period between about 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. They attest to a skill set that predates pottery and plant domestication. For the researchers, clay, a malleable and easily available material, may have been used very early to express ideas and representations, even before firing techniques became widespread.

Birds, mammals and human figures

The figurines represent, according to the researchers, birds, mammals and humans. Some retain traces of orange or red pigment, deliberately applied to the surface. One fragment may depict the facial pattern of a mountain gazelle, a valuable clue to the symbolic world of these communities, in which hunted animals likely held an important place.

The diversity of forms suggests that Natufian figures were more varied and complex than previously assumed. They are not limited to a few standardized types but reflect aesthetic choices and beliefs specific to these groups. The study thus invites us to see these objects not as simple toys or sketches, but as meaningful productions, although their exact significance remains open.

The Natufians, sedentary hunter-gatherers

The Natufian culture occupied the Levant during the Epipalaeolithic and comprised hunter-gatherer communities already settled, living from hunting, fishing and the gathering of wild plants. This early sedentism partly explains the growing place of symbolic objects in daily life, since permanent dwelling favors the making and preservation of durable objects.

For the authors of the study, these discoveries show that the seeds of the Levantine Neolithic culture developed well before the agricultural revolution. Agriculture and pottery therefore did not initiate artistic expression but extended it in other forms. The Neolithic thus appears less as an abrupt break than as the outcome of a long cultural process.

Children involved in making them

A particularly striking element concerns the participation of children in making these objects. According to Laurent Davin, quoted by the website Phys.org, "these discoveries change our understanding of the beginnings of artistic expression in the first villages of humanity".

This presence suggests that creativity and cultural knowledge were passed from one generation to the next through the very practice of modelling. The learning of gestures and representations was thus part of community life, and the objects also show how a society circulated its beliefs and its knowledge of the natural world.

Seeing the sites and collections

Natufian remains are spread across the Levant, mainly in present-day Israel, the West Bank and Lebanon. Visitors interested in this period can consult the prehistoric art collections of regional archaeology museums, as well as exhibitions devoted to the first sedentary societies of the Near East.

For French prehistory, the archeo-logis.fr site offers a useful point of comparison on the graphic and figurative practices of European hunter-gatherers, whose Ice Age animal representations allow us to measure the parallels and differences with the Levant.