Mar 18, 2026 09:53 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120021
EXCERPT: For decades, archaeologists believed that symbolic uses of clay in Southwest Asia emerged only with farming and the Neolithic way of life. This study and the recent discovery of a clay figurine in Nahal Ein Gev II overturns that assumption.
Instead, it shows that a “symbolic revolution” began earlier, during the first stages of sedentarization, when communities were still hunting and gathering but beginning to live in permanent settlements. Clay ornaments became a way to express identity, affiliation, and social relationships, visually and publicly.
“These objects show that profound social and cognitive changes were already underway,” said Prof. Leore Grosman. “The roots of the Neolithic lie deeper than we once thought.”
By documenting one of the world’s oldest traditions of clay adornment, the study reframes the Natufians not just as forerunners of agriculture, but as innovators of symbolic culture, people who used clay to say something about who they were, and who they were becoming.... (MORE - missing details, no ads)
EXCERPT: For decades, archaeologists believed that symbolic uses of clay in Southwest Asia emerged only with farming and the Neolithic way of life. This study and the recent discovery of a clay figurine in Nahal Ein Gev II overturns that assumption.
Instead, it shows that a “symbolic revolution” began earlier, during the first stages of sedentarization, when communities were still hunting and gathering but beginning to live in permanent settlements. Clay ornaments became a way to express identity, affiliation, and social relationships, visually and publicly.
“These objects show that profound social and cognitive changes were already underway,” said Prof. Leore Grosman. “The roots of the Neolithic lie deeper than we once thought.”
By documenting one of the world’s oldest traditions of clay adornment, the study reframes the Natufians not just as forerunners of agriculture, but as innovators of symbolic culture, people who used clay to say something about who they were, and who they were becoming.... (MORE - missing details, no ads)