Figures of mysterious creatures found in 10,000-year-old burials

Figures of mysterious creatures found in 10,000-year-old burials
Figures of mysterious creatures found in 10,000-year-old burials
Anonim

An international team from the research project Kharaysin archaeological team during excavations in Jordan discovered dozens of strange Neolithic figurines that were in burials about 10 thousand years old.

An article about this discovery was published in the journal Antiquity. The found figurines date back to the middle of the ninth millennium BC. This era is known as the Early Neolithic. At that time, iconography was just beginning to spread in the Middle East. New research will help understand how it developed.

The burials mentioned above are located at the Kharaisin archaeological site in the valley of the Zarka River. A group of archaeologists from Spain, France and Great Britain worked there. It was headed by Dr. Juan Jose Ibanez.

The discovered artifacts outwardly resemble the flint tools of ancient people. However, most of these items were found in burials, which is not typical for flint tools. Scientists have suggested that the artifacts had a sacred meaning. That is, they were deliberately placed in the graves with the deceased during funeral rituals.

The artifacts were thoroughly analyzed. As a result, the researchers saw them as "human forms." The upper pair of notches is a taper to indicate the neck, and the lower pair is to indicate the waist. A similar "violin-shaped contour" was previously observed in two figurines of the same period, found in Kharaisin and made of baked clay. This indicates that the artifacts are Neolithic figurines. Who exactly did they portray?

There is a version that these were primitive images of deities. In subsequent periods of time, the practice of making anthropomorphic figurines of deities became widespread. For example, in Europe during excavations, figurines of "Venus" were found more than once, the age of which was estimated at thousands of years.

Perhaps the statuettes found in Jordan were the results of the first attempts to create divine sculptures. By the way, all the Neolithic figurines found by this mission have different shapes and sizes.

In their article, the authors write that artifacts could be cult objects, including "conductors of magic" that were used in rituals. But they also pay attention to the fact that some of the finds were made not in graves, but in ordinary pits.

It is possible that these statuettes were thrown away for some reason. For example, they could be thrown away after the completion of the ceremony. Or they were simply rejected. There is one more explanation - the figurines could be used as children's toys or as visual exhibits when teaching rituals.

The discovery also proves that people experienced "psychological and social shifts" during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle and agriculture. In particular, they probably developed ideas about the afterlife.

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