M. Freikman and Y. Garfinke, 2009. The Zoomorphic Figurines from Sha'ar Hagolan: Hunting Magic Practices in the Neolithic Near East (original) (raw)

The Zoomorphic Figurines from Sha'ar Hagolan: Hunting Magic Practices in the Neolithic Near East

While much attention has been paid to the anthropomorphic figurines of the Yarmukian culture, very little is known about the zoomorphic representations made by the same people. This paper fills the gap by presenting a full corpus of the zoomorphic figurines uncovered at Sha'ar Hagolan, the type site of the Yarmukian culture. There are 38 items, all illustrated by drawings and a few by photographs. In addition, several zoomorphic figurines from Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Munhata have been re-examined and are discussed here.

Y. Garfinkel, 2010. Part II, Chapters 9-11. In Y. Garfinkel et al. Sha'ar Hagolan Vol. 3. Symbolic Dimensions of the Yarmukian Culture: Canonization in Neolithic Art

PART II: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Chapter 9. The Cowrie-Eye Motif. Cowrie-Eye Figurines from the Levant and Mesopotamia in the 7th–6th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Vessels from the Levant and Mesopotamia in the 7th–6th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Figurines from Iran in the 6th–5th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Figurines from Turkey in the 6th–5th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Figurines from Southeastern Europe in the 6th–Early 4th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Vessels from Southeastern Europe in the 6th–5th Millennia BCE. Cowrie-Eye Figurines from Southern Mesopotamia in the 5th Millennium BCE. Chapter 10. Pebble Figurines in the Levant. Yarmukian Pebble Figurines from Munhata. Pebble Figurines from Hamadya, Pebble Figurine from ‘Ain Ghazal. Pebble Figurines from Byblos. An Incised Pottery Sherd from Ard el Samra. Post Yarmukian Pebble Figurines in the Levant. Chapter 11. Discussion. Stekelis’ Approach to the Sha‘ar Hagolan Art Assemblage. The Cowrie-Eye Anthropomorphic Figurines. The Pebble Figurines and Clay-Pebble Iconographic Relationship. Manufacturing Differences between Zoomorphic and Anthropomorphic Clay Figurines. The Herringbone Pattern. The Unique Character of Yarmukian Art. Bibiography

K. Streit and Y. Garfinkel, 2015. Horned Figurines made of Stone from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods and the Domestication of Sheep and Goat. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147: 39–48.

At the time of writing, fourteen horned figurines made of stone have been uncovered in eight archaeological sites of the Levant and southern Anatolia dating to the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (6th and 5th millennium cal BC). Their striking stylistic similarity, together with their low frequency, requires a detailed analysis. The figurines, produced of locally accessible stone, feature the head of a horned animal with characteristic spiralling horns. No comparable figurines manufactured of a different raw material like clay or ivory have been uncovered. Three typological groups can be distinguished based on the shape of the horns, possibly identified as Capra falconeri (Group 1) and Ovis aries orientalis (Groups 2 and 3) in different degrees of stylization. Recent genetic studies demonstrate that these species were progenitors of the domestic sheep and goat, respectively. Figur-ines of the second and third typological groups are pierced, which suggests that they were worn as personal ornaments. This paper draws attention to these figurines as a coherent group and suggests some possible meanings in proto-historic society. Their stylistic homogeneity is tentatively ascribed to a shared iconographic language across the Levant at the onset of agriculture. .  With the advent of an agro-pastoral lifestyle and the increasing reliance on domesticated animals, their prevalence in the iconographic canon increased. However, research on them remained in the shadow of the more attractive anthropomorphic figurines (Hamilton et al. ; Noy-Israeli ; Moorey ). Recent studies draw attention to the much neglected zoomorphic clay figurines of the Neolithic period at Sha'arHagolan (Freikman and Garfinkel ) and Çatalhöyük (Martin and Meskell ). This paper draws attention to a group of stone carved zoomorphic figurines of horned animals found in Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of the Levant and Mesopotamia in the th and th millennium cal  (chronology and terminology used in this paper is based on Voigt and Dyson ; Garfinkel ). Two types of figurines of horned animals made of stone can be distinguished: the first being figurines of the head with the horns alone depicted, frequently pierced to be worn as a pendant (Fig. ) and the second being statuettes of the complete animal with detailed horns in high relief and a rather stylized body (Fig. ). While the first type is the topic of this paper, Amiran () discussed the latter group in some detail, comparing similarities between figurines found at Kabri and Azor in Israel and Tepe Yahya in Iran. She concluded that these comparisons "do not constitute as yet more than hints at a possibly much broader contact of the Chalcolithic-Pre-Jamdet Nasr cultures and much more complex interlockings between them than has been assumed" (Amiran , ). The hints of which she wrote are made clearer if one includes the first group of horned figurines in the analysis, for they are almost certainly related to those depicting the complete