Braun Neolithic Figurines

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A Note on Iconography of “Yarmukian” Neolithic Figurines © Eliot Braun Reprinted from: The Journal of Unproductive and Non-reproducible Knowledge Vol. .43/13

Abstract: The art of primitive cultures is in large part founded in the subconscious awareness of humans to their surroundings and the natural milieu that impinged upon and shaped their very modes of subsistence. It is generally accepted that artistic production was humankind’s way of attempting (whether by propitiating forces of nature or making symbolic attempts to control them) to produce a more congenial environment in which to exist. Not unnaturally, to fulfill this function, the creative human mind was able to adapt simple motifs from their physical world, and through the medium of artistic expression, elevate them to superb heights of symbolic sacredness. This paper attempts to explain how a group of Late Neolithic peoples in the southern Levant were likely to have adapted several simple, natural motifs taken from their physical world and, through interpretative, inspired art, elevate and transmogrify them into the very highest levels of sacred symbolism. The large assemblage of terracotta figurines they have left us provides the archaeologist with not only tangible evidence of these primitive peoples religious aspirations, but also rarely encountered, secondary evidence of natural elements that were part of their quotidian reality.

Key Words:

Yarmukian Neolithic figurines; primary object; cognition through abstraction; excremental vision

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790 Cognition through abstraction, no matter how limited, was thus inherent in daily and seasonal life. Ideological belief was as much a result of daily and seasonal life as it was a reflection of a cosmology acknowledged at the time. Those who argue that an increasing knowledge of symbolism as it was used for ideological purposes or for purposes of notation demonstrates an evolutionary step towards civilization are basing their views on but one aspect of what has to be regarded as a total development to which all elements of the culture contributed. This is never so clear as in the religious area. The holistic concept of man in nature marks the mind of primitive man. Walter A. Fairservis Jr. (1975:106) on Late Paleolithic Art from Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia The milieu of the individual was largely the physical world… Walter A. Fairservis Jr. (1975:117) on the Paleolithic site of Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia

Introduction:

The site of Sha’ar Hagolan was apparently first settled in Late Neolithic times, a stage associated with the earliest evidence of mass production of pottery in the southern Levant. The proximity of the site to the Yarmuk river basin has lent its name (“Yarmukian”) to that chrono-cultural phase, (Stekelis 1972). The Yarmukian culture is especially noted for its distinctively painted and incised pottery vessels (e.g. Garfinkel 1999:66-67) and a rather large group of highly idiosyncratic, terracotta human figurines (e.g. Fig. 1:2; Stekelis 1952; Garfinkel 2002:108-137).

These diminutive idols are particularly noteworthy for their iconography, marked by elongated and exaggerated features, as well as their segmented mode of construction that makes them unique to their chrono-cultural milieu. This paper addresses the likely inspiration for these intriguingly idiosyncratic aspects of Yarmukian mobile art.

Man1” to form male and female images in a variety of attitudes. Facial features include elongated, tapering heads marked by very distinctive renderings of eyes in a style often declared reminiscent of “coffee beans” (Fig. 1:2). However, the elongated and deeply channeled aspect of the eyes on Yarmukian figurines is equally, and likely, more evocative of date stones. Dates (unlike coffee that seems to have been native to the southern Arabian Peninsula and did not appear in the southern Levant until modern times) are more likely to have been available to the Neolithic denizens of Sha’ar Ha-Golan2. Thus, there is reason to believe that Yarmukians, as did Paleolithic humans at Dolne Vestonice, borrowed natural motifs from their surroundings and applied them to their art. The result of the agglutinative technique in which Yarmukian figurines were fashioned largely determined their rather peculiar iconography. Since as a group they only superficially resemble 1

The figurines were fashioned in a modular manner, with individual oval or rounded and bulging segments, stuck together in the manner of “Michelin-

This well-recognized logo of the French tire manufacturer, is a human-like representation fashioned of segment of inflated inner tubes. 2 Dates are known to have existed in the south Levantine segment of the Great Rift Valley at least as early as the Chalcolithic period (Zaitschek 1980:225; Hopf 1983) and may well have existed there earlier.

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figurines from some neighboring contemporary cultures, and are actually stylistically unique for the Ancient Near East, the question arises as to the origin of such an unusual method of construction. What was the inspiration for these elongated, segmented, schematic approximations of human physiognomy? Recent experiences of the writer of these lines, have suggested a likely source of inspiration in the physical world of the Neolithic peoples of Sha’ar Ha-Golan.

Chance

Discovery: This writer possesses a domesticated animal of the genus Canis, species familiaris, bearing the appellation “Fizzy” (a testament to the effervescent qualities eminently visible in the typical pose featured in Fig. 1:1).

a highly beloved specimen of canine pulchritude and much cosseted family companion. This crotchety canine, now in the twilight of her years, is called upon by Nature to periodically request release from her domestic nest to be let out of doors for performance of excrementitious functions. Since the age of this animal is so advanced that she is unable to wander far in search of satisfactorily favorable olfactorypleasing locations for their performance, these functions are accomplished no further distant than the immediate environs of this writer’s domicile.

Fig. 1. Canis Familiaris, breed—“Heinz Terrier”: Fizzy.

This animal is a typical example of the breed “Heinz Terrier”3, and, in addition, 3

This breed, not yet recognized by the most prestigious trade paper: The Dog Underwriter’s National Gazette (D. U. N. G.), but application has been made for recognition. The origin of the name is in the nature of the breed, an exotic mélange of at leastl “57 varieties”.

Fig. 2. Yarmukian figurine (based on Garfinkel 2002:cover).

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Fig. 4. Prima faecies evidence (after Fizzy 2003), cf. Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Rendering of a Yarmukian Figurine (based on Garfinkel 2002:130).

In lieu of willing progeny to supervise this interaction with the domestic animal, it has fallen to this writer (in the interests of maintaining a minimal level of hygiene as well as reasonably clear and direct access to his abode) to periodically retrace said canine’s wanderings in order to collect those eminently visible and malodorous deposits (henceforth “the primary object” or prima fæces evidence) resulting from this voiding activity.

On numerous such occasions it has come to his attention that these selfsame candidates for eventual conversion to coprolites, bear uncanny resemblances to Yarmukian figurines or segments thereof. Indeed, so obvious is the similitude between these ancient and modern objects, it is deemed virtually certain the inspiration for these Late Neolithic works of art should be sought in similar, contemporary Neolithic primary objects.

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Fig. 5. Prima faecies evidence (After Fizzy 2003).

The

Evidence: Most unfortunately, published reports on Neolithic sites in the southern Levant are, at least for the present, silent on the existence of this particular sort of deposit that would have given inspiration to the Neolithic artists of Sha’ar Hagolan. That such objects must have existed, is obvious from circumstantial evidence. Dogs and other canines (wolves, foxes and jackals) were likely to be among the domesticated or wild animals (perhaps in search of food scraps) that frequented the settlement or came in contact with it in some peripheral manner.

Fig. 6. A photo montage of prima faecies evidence in Fig. 5, with Chalcolithic date stones superimposed as eyes in imitation of a Yarmukian figurine.

Certainly canines are known to be associated with man in the region at least as early as the Epipaleolithic period (Bar Yosef 1993; Perrot 1993:392), while there is also some evidence of them from later Chalcolithic settlement contexts. Related canines, jackals, wolves and foxes are also indigenous to the region and so are likely to have come into contact with Neolithic people occupying the Sha’ar Ha-Golan site. If we may assume that these denizens of yesteryear had visual and olfactory senses at least as sharp as those in modern human populations, then contact between people and deposits left by these

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animals, either within the confines of their settlements or nearby, is certain.

We may only speculate as to the degree such visual displays and olfactory emanations stimulated brains of Neolithic peoples at Sha’ar Ha-Golan to reproduce humanoid replicas using similar motifs derived from their surroundings. However, it may be assumed that contact with primary objects must have been direct and rather immediate after canines deposited them. One may even assume that some encounters were tactile in nature.4

If we may assume the existence of date palms in the region, and the known sweet tooth canines have developed, then it is not hard to see visualize the inspiration for the motif used for eyes on these Neolithic figurines. Canines would have consumed such delicacies as dates when available by “wolfing” them down, stones and all. Ingested date stones, of cellulose and other indigestible materials, would have been excreted in the same way as straw is found in ruminants’ dung. One, or even two strategically arranged such date stones would have created an impression in Yarmukian people’s minds of a schematic human model, complete with details such as eyes.

Such an occurrence may be understood as an “excremental vision”. It is not difficult to imagine that an encounter by 4

Such encounters remain common even today, especially in urban settings, but they are more likely to end with loud pronouncements of expletives rather than become inspiration for objects of veneration.

Fig. 7. A prima faecies article (after Fizzy 2003) of the type that inspired fertility (or fetidity?) figurines.

a primitive Yarmukian ancestor with such a vision would spark the urge in an artistically creative brain to duplicate a naturally create effigy of such a clearly anthropomorphic subject. Such visions must have been at once both clear and mystical. They would have inspired recreation of god-given (deus ex-canis) effigies in materials more durable and less offensive to human olfactory glands. In summer this would have had to have occurred within a matter of a very few days, otherwise desiccation of the primary objects, caused by extreme heat and especially direct sunlight, would have quickly robbed them of their primary visual and olfactory characteristics. Winter with its wet spells would have wreaked havoc on the ability

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of these objects to have visually stimulated Neolithic artists who encountered them, although they would have maintained and perhaps even increased their ability to stimulate olfactory senses. Thus, we may assume the responses to these encounters (see below) took place in the in-between seasons of spring and autumn, when weather was most clement.

From

Excremental to Sacramental Vision: Neolithic peoples obviously had cognitive abilities now known to be extant in modern Homo Sapiens. One of these is the ability of the brain to ‘coordinate responses to artistic perceptions” (known for short as C. R. A. P.) that derive from encounters with the most mundane and profane of objects, and to remodel and restructure them. This process is further enhanced by a special secondary procedure triggered in the brain. Although little is known of this secondary response, there is evidence to indicate that C. R. A. P. causes the human brain to enter into a highly specialized mode of operation known as “mode engendering responses dealing with existential stimuli, or M. E. R. D. E. S for short. In this mode the brain then recreates and renders those primary images into objects of divine reverence.5

5

This process and mode are also eminently reversible, as may be observed in modern human societies. Lest the reader question this, she or he is reminded of the ability of the human brain to create, through M. E. R. D. E. S and C. R. A. P., the social equivalent of primary objects. The practice is performed by modern politicians and religious functionaries, who constantly demonstrate its efficaciousness. Some especially charismatic figures have done, and continue to

Thus, must Neolithic people of the Yarmukian Culture have been stimulated to transmogrify multiple and simple encounters that constituted excremental visions, into others both profound and sacred. So moved to action were they from these encounters with primary objects, they recreated these visions in portable, durable terracotta, the better to preserve them. Proof of this ability is in the hundreds of highly stylized terracotta figurines retrieved from Sha’ar HaGolan and other sites (e.g. Garfinkel 2002: 107-139) Kafafi 2001: Figs. 2023). The obvious relationship of some of these to fertility figurines suggests they were believed to be endowed with apotropaic qualities. The large number of these terracotta objects attests to the obvious satisfactory results Yarmukian peoples must have achieved, otherwise they would not have made them in such numbers. This, despite obvious loss of olfactory stimulation found in the primary objects that could not be duplicated in clay. One may even presume that Neolithic peoples were at least consigned to this loss in quality, if not delighted by it. The particular manifestation it took in the Yarmukian Culture must be related to specific conditions and events. In the case of Sha’ar Hagolan, the obvious source for most of the figurines of this period, it is possible to postulate the existence of one or more canines of the Heinz Terrier breed, coming into contact transmogrify distinctly sublime and sacred human visions, recreating them as equivalents of the primary object, albeit with just enough original trappings to successfully convince gullible masses they maintain their original intent.

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with the population over a period of time. The resultant interaction by humans with primary objects they deposited, sparked a religious experience that entailed creation of numerous figurines. One may even reconstruct some early form of mass religious revival undergone by the community at Sha’ar Ha-Golan where these objects abound; only a handful of additional figurines of this type have been recovered from other sites. This type of human interaction with the environment with its ultimate channeling into sacred related activity is common to all cultures and times. Such are the inspirations that produce primary spiritual experiences from which mankind’s religions emerged.

Fig. 9. A natural ‘figurine’(After Fizzy 2003).

Fig. 8. A composite ‘figurine’ fashioned from prima faecies evidence (After Fizzy 2003).

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References Bar Yosef, O. 1993 ‘Enan. P. 409 in E. Stern in The New Encylcopedia of Archaeological Investigations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society. Fairservis, W. A. 1975 The Threshold of Civilization: An Experiment in Prehistory. New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons. Fizzy, C. F (Cans familiaris) 20003a Occasional Backyard Evacuations: Acta Prima Fæces No. 734. Fizzy, C. F (Canis familiaris) 20003b Occasional Backyard Evacuations: Acta Prima Fæces No. 804. Fizzy, C. F (Canis familiaris) 20003c Occasional Backyard Evacuations: Acta Prima Fæces No. 981. Garfinkel, Y. 1999 Neolithic and Chalcolithic Pottery of the Southern Levant. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Qedem 39). Garfinkel, Y. 2002 Sha’ar Hagolan: Neolithic Art in the Jordan Valley. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society (Hebrew). Hopf, M. 1983 Appendix B: Jericho Plant Remains. Pp. 576-621 in K. M. Kenyon and T. E. Holland. Excavations at Jericho V. London: The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Kafafi, Z. A. 2001 Jebel Abu Thawwab (Er-Rumman), Central Jordan: The Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Occupations. Berlin: Ex Oriente. Perrot, J. 1993 ‘Enan. Pp. 389-393 in E. Stern in The New Encylcopedia of Archaeological Investigations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society. Stekelis, M. 1952 Two More Yarmukian Figurines. Israel Exploration Journal 2:216-217. 1972 The Yarmoukian Culture of the Neolithic Period. Jerusalem: Magnes Press Zaitschek, D. V. 1980 Appendix A: Plant Remains from the Cave of the Treasure. Pp. 223-228 in P. Bar-Adon, The Cave of the Treasure: The Finds from the Caves in Nahal Mishmar. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.

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