Though many questions remain about the figurine, researchers suspect that the artifact had ritualistic or spiritual meaning.
Laurent DavinThough Natufian people hunted geese, this bird is depicted as very much alive.
During excavations at a Late Natufian settlement near the Sea of Galilee in Israel, archaeologists uncovered a tiny clay figure. Upon closer examination, they determined that it had been carefully molded to depict a woman and a goose in a close embrace. Researchers believe that it was meant to show a mating scene between human and animal.
While unusual, such a scene is not unprecedented within the arc of early human history. And it offers fascinating insight into the lives of the industrious Natufian people who lived thousands of years ago.
The Woman-And-Goose Figurine Found At A Natufian Settlement In Israel
As detailed in a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the clay figurine was discovered during excavations at the Late Natufian settlement of Nahal Ein Gev II, perched above the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Archaeologists came across the figure while digging within a semi-circular stone structure that had been used more than 10,000 years ago for burials, and which also contained a child’s grave and human teeth.
Though easily mistaken for a tiny stone, researchers were able to determine that the small, one-and-a-half-inch-tall figure had been carefully designed by a Natufian craftsperson some 12,000 years ago.
Hadas GoldgeierResearchers Leore Grosman and Laurent Davin with the figurine.
It was made from local clay, molded into shape, carefully heated at a controlled temperature, and painted. Researchers were able to find traces of red pigment (ochre) as well as a stray fingerprint, which they believe came from a young female craftsperson.
But while the find itself is extraordinary, the imagery it depicts is even more so. Researchers believe that the figure shows a nude woman holding a goose over her shoulders. While geese were hunted by the Natufian people, this goose appears to be alive. What’s more, its wings are wrapped around the woman, seemingly holding her in a passionate embrace.
Laurent DavinA closer look at the woman-goose figurine, including the faint fingerprint left by its maker.
Researchers believe that the imagery is a scene — imagined or mythological — of a goose mating with a woman. They say that such a dynamic is consistent with animistic beliefs, or the idea that humans and animals are spiritually connected.
“This discovery is extraordinary on multiple levels,” Laurent Davin, the lead author of the paper, said in a statement. “Not only is this the world’s earliest figurine depicting human-animal interaction, but it’s also the earliest naturalistic representation of a woman found in Southwest Asia.”
The Dynamic Ancient History Of The Natufian People
The Natufian culture existed some 15,000 to 11,500 years ago and represented one of humanity’s first steps from nomadic living to forming permanent communities. They were also highly industrious: During past excavations at Nahal Ein Gev II, archaeologists found the first evidence of wheel-making and plaster production.
But many questions about the culture remain, including what the goose-woman connection might have meant to the Natufians.
Daniel RoliderResearchers Natalie Munro and Laurent Davin with the figurine.
Researchers know that geese played an important role in Natufian life. Their feathers were used for decoration, and their bones were made into ornaments. But while researchers don’t know what role the birds might have possibly played in Natufian myth or spiritual life, the figurine is an indication that such myths existed. As nomadic people settled, their thoughts turned increasingly to art and storytelling.
“The [figurine from Nahal Ein Gev II] captures a transformative moment,” Leore Grosman of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the leaders of the project, stated. “It bridges the world of mobile hunter-gatherers and that of the first settled communities, showing how imagination and symbolic thinking began to shape human culture.”
Though the full story behind the figurine is seemingly lost to time, its existence offers a small hint at what the Natufian people believed and imagined some 12,000 years ago.
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