Early and middle Neolithic figurines - the migration of religious belief (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Study Of Anthropomorphic Figurines In The Neolithic Of Southwest Asia And Southeastern Europe
2013
Anthropomorphic figurines resemble people, very often the people who created them. Thus, these figurines stand to provide insight into their cultures perhaps from the perspective of the original members of the culture. Researchers in figurine studies often speculate on the purposes of figurines and attempt to interpret their meanings. This study attempts to examine anthropomorphic figurines of the Neolithic in Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe through cataloged and compared physical characteristics of the figurines themselves gathered from published data into a relational database. Figurine data are then imported into statistical software for analysis. The data produced in this study support the early hypothesis that a disproportionate number of figurines are representative of the female sex compared to male. The data also strengthen newer hypotheses that asexual figurines are equally disproportionate. The results reveal trends in representations of sex and suggest perhaps figurine creators may not always have been end users.
Southeast European Neolithic figurines: beyond context, interpretation, and meaning (2017)
Published in In T. Insoll (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, pp. 823-50. Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2017
In this article, I review recent work on figurines from Neolithic southeastern Europe and suggest an alternative approach. I argue that we should abandon searches for explanation and for meanings of figurines as pieces of the past. The alternative is to work with figurine material in the present, disarticulated from prehistory, and to make new work that recognizes figurines’ position in the present.
Neolithic Figurines in Southwest Asia and Europe
Unexpected looks. The Neolithic anthropomorphic stele of Algar do Bom Santo (Lisbon) in its funerary and ritual context Antonio Faustino Carvalho Southern Echoes? Stone Figurines in the Iberian Northwest Ramón Fábregas Valcarce Looking through Millennia. Oculados other anthropomorphic forms of the Late Prehistory of Northern Portugal
Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic (2005)
Full text of the volume published in London by Routledge., 2005
Outstanding-a daring and authoritative treatment, wonderfully wide-ranging. .. a fascinating treatment that ranges from early farmers to Barbie Dolls-a superb comparative work in visual culture. The way archaeology needs to go.' Michael Shanks, Stanford University 'The book is ambitious, wide-ranging and coherent. It is clearly going to be the authoritative account on the subject. .. Bailey writes accessibly and shows a clarity of thought lacking in most authors who tackle this kind of material. In short his account is scholarly, judicious and balanced, but also interesting. .. This book ought to be mainstream reading in archaeology, anthropology and studies of visual culture, at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels.' Richard Bradley, University of Reading 'Challenging and provocative, successfully engaging European prehistoric evidence with wider studies of visual culture. .. '
2017
Contrasted to the vast majority of Neolithic finds, thousands of Neolithic figurines along with anthropomorphic vessels, house models were vested with both a special typological and an artistic value. Thus, these cult objects were mostly divorced from their original contexts and left bereft of any clues that would reveal anything about their roles within the community. This handicap was further aggravated by interpretations that considered these South-East and Central European figurines as forerunners of the deities and goddesses of classical Antiquity. Owing to this unfortunate research history, the positivist legacy is little more than a series of figurines arranged into a relative chronological order and a few remarks on possible correlations and contacts within or between Eastern and Central European cultural groups. But what positive interpretation do these representations allow, given that some sites have occasionally yielded hundreds of these figurines? A closer examination of the stylistic features and the archaeological contexts of can reveal much about Neolithic history, Neolithic cognition, and about the role of ritual customs within changing Neolithic social structures. key words: 6th and 5th Millennium BC, figurines in households, naturalistic and symbolic representations, transitions between human and zoomorphic representations, intentional breaking of figurines, Starčevo culture, LBK figurines, Mesolithic impact