Prehistoric Figurines

This  paper  takes  female  anthopomorphic  figurines  from  the  Cretan  Bronze  Age  peak  sanctuary  of  Prinias  as  a  case  study  for  exploring  Minoan  terracotta  figurines  from  the  perspective  of  their  production.  The  specific  focus  is  on  the  processes  of  ‘making’, that is modelling and construction within a handmade coroplastic tradition in which figurines are, for the most part, constructed  from  separate  pieces  and  formed  using  a  complex,  additive  process  that  may  involve  a  variety  of  methods  such  as  shaping,  pinching,  pegging  and  applied  clay  or  painted  details.  The  aim  is  the  reconstruction  of  the  process  or  sequence  of modelling and construction of the clay figurine, paying close attention to decision-making, variant possibilities and which elements of the figurines are given the greatest care and elaboration. Such a study of the technologies of manufacture can help us to better evaluate and understand stylistic choices and variation within the context of practices of use, and thus the role of figurines in communicating social messages relating to individual and community identities

The calcite figurine of a human couple in coitus said to be from Ain Sakhri in Judea has been interpreted as a symbol of fertility reflecting the economic and social concerns of the Natufian period. This paper presents a critical history surrounding its discovery, an evaluation of its archaeological context and a description of the piece itself, in order to address the broader issues surrounding its interpretation.

This thesis aims to understand the use of animal figurines at the Early Bronze Age site of Koçumbeli in social context. In order to achieve this aim, 20 animal figurines from Koçumbeli have been examined in terms of their thematic representations, raw materials, production technique, color, breakage as well as their contexts. Thematic evaluations focus on the animals depicted and their sex and age, while the contextual evaluations focus on the spatiality of animal figurines in relation to domestic and burial contexts. Following this, where possible through the publications, the animal figurines discovered at other EBA sites of Anatolia are evaluated in similar terms, in an attempt to achieve a better understanding of the figurines under consideration.
The thematic findings indicate that horned animals are particularly emphasized both within the corpus of Koçumbeli and other sites. Besides these, other animals can be found within the assemblages. The contextual evaluations suggest that the clay animal figurines are generally associated with domestic contexts whereas the metal figurines are associated with elite burial contexts.
Based on an evaluation of these findings against the subsistence economy of the time period as well as the development of animal imagery during the prehistory of Anatolia, it is suggested that animal figurines mediate a negotiation of social identity and prestige of individuals and families with reference to beliefs and rituals of social regeneration. Their specialized production in metals and association with elite burials should be placed in context of the emerging centralization processes during EBA in Anatolia.

In recent archaeological scholarship, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in small-scale material culture and miniaturization. From miniature pottery to model tools, figurines to tomb models, the material turn has elaborated on objects of all kinds and brought even the smallest of things to the fore of archaeological investigation. Yet, despite the manipulation of scale shared by all such diminutive objects, figurines have received much greater attention in archaeological analyses than other miniature objects. An exploration of the scholarship suggests that this scholarly imbalance has been shaped by four main factors: the unquestioned assumption that all miniature objects were used in ritual; the bias towards objects that are anthropomorphic and therefore self-reflexive; an increased archaeological interest in embodiment; and a preoccupation with the functionality of the large-scale prototypes of many miniature objects.

This paper contends that all small-scale objects – figurines and miniature objects alike – can in fact be approached using a similar framework. Much of the figurine scholarship that developed in the field over the past two decades can be usefully applied to miniature objects as well, and a cognitive approach reveals similarities for both types of objects. Drawing on Douglass Bailey’s work on the abstraction and compression of figurines (2005), Susan Stewart’s explorations of miniaturization and its effect on time (1993), the use of material scaffolding in off-line cognition investigated by Matthew Day (2004), and Andy Clark’s theories of cognitive “surrogates” (2010), this paper advocates for the equal potency and significance of small-scale material culture, figural or otherwise.

Presentation for panel “Bridging interpretations on manufacturing symbolic artefacts and cognitive underpinnings” at BANEA 2019 (British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology).
Abstract:
Figurines are among the most commonly found artefacts in Neolithic sites across the Near East. These emblematic objects have often stimulated colourful interpretations, focussing primarily on stylistic elements of the anthropomorphic subjects. Such elements, like their perceived femaleness accompanied by voluptuousness, have historically been deemed as directly linked to concerns with fertility and pregnancy, which led to the assumption of the figurines being ritual objects and representations of deities, often labelled as ‘mother-goddesses’. These interpretations essentially generalize the entirety of the figurine assemblages of the Neolithic world, and erase the possibilities of in-depth analysis of these objects. An often-overlooked aspect is their manufacturing process, mostly touched upon on descriptive terms and in relation to the figurines’ style. However, if any craft is a learned and taught process, we can assume that culturally significant elements are also passed on from the master to the pupil. These can be traced when examining the chaîne opératoire of figurine making. Moreover, it can shed light upon the cognitive reasoning behind the making of miniatures of humans and of animals, and more specifically in the perception of the human body in anthropomorphic depictions. This could be reflected in the multitude of manufacturing techniques encountered in the Neolithic sites of the Lake District region of Western Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. By looking at the figurine assemblages of the Late Neolithic levels of Hacilar and of Höyücek, where the craft of figurine making seems to have started flourishing at the sites, and by drawing upon the works of Douglas Bailey and Lauren Talalay, this presentation will attempt to highlight the possible connections between the manufacturing technique and the perception of the self as an individual, and perhaps as a community member, in the Neolithic societies of these sites. The discussion that will be presented in this session will touch upon specific aspects of the manufacturing process of these assemblages: 1) the making-up of the human body by joining individual pieces, single clay-mass, or two joined vertical halves; 2) the presence, in some cases, of a hollow purposefully-made for the insertion/removal of a head of a perishable material; 3) the application of seemingly decorative pre-baking dots, and post-baking linear scratches in some examples from Höyücek.
These aspects will be discussed in order to highlight the possibility of these practices having specific cognitive significance around the perception of the individual’s body and identity, arguing that they possibly stand for a fluid conception of a sense of self, as a single and as a member of a community.

Presentation for SABA 2019 (Studentischen Archäologie-Symposium Bamberg).
Abstract:
Figurines are some of the most commonly found artefacts in Neolithic sites across the Near East. Their frequency and seemingly recurrent aesthetic, specifically for anthropomorphic subjects, has led past and modern research to often interpret these objects as representations of fertility deities, often labelled as ‘mother-goddesses’. This interpretation, mostly based on an exclusively stylistic analysis, suggests a universalistic understanding of figurines, implying that similarities in aesthetics indicated similarities in meanings too (Lesure 2011, 1). Furthermore it does not acknowledge that meanings are fabricated within a complex dynamic social context and are, therefore, unstable by nature (Lesure 2002, 588). However, most recent research stresses the importance of contextualisation and highlights the potential of technical aspects, like the manufacturing process (Talalay 1987, 161). This kind of approach will be applied here for the study of the figurine assemblages of the Late Neolithic levels of Hacilar and Höyücek, in the Lake District region of Western Anatolia to assess whether a contextual-technical approach to figurines can help us better understand the role and use these objects had, as opposed to the previously employed approaches. Therefore, after introducing the Neolithic of the Lake District, it will analyse these assemblages starting from their archaeological context, their manufacturing process, possible usage patterns, and lastly it will consider the relevance of stylistic elements in relation to the previously analysed aspects. This research will highlight the diversity of practices in these two sites which perhaps supports the conclusion argued by the author that these artefacts could have had dynamic meanings and therefore uses within the same community. However, the reader should be informed of the limitations of this research, starting from the impossibility of working with the objects first-hand – therefore relying exclusively on pictures and drawings – and having to work with old and not so systematic excavation reports.

Poster presented at Dusane 2019 (Dutch Symposium of the Ancient Near East).
This research is based on a theoretical framework which argues that cultural standards, by definition dynamic, are often passed on through craft-teaching and learning, therefore the ways in which figurines were made could reveal aspects of community, and individual, identity. 
This framework was applied on the case study of the figurines of two sites in the Lake District region of Western Anatolia, with a focus on their Late Neolithic levels, with the main research question being the following:
What can a cognitive perspective on the manufacturing process of the Late Neolithic (6,400 - 6,000 BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Hacilar and Höyücek (Lake District, Turkey) tell us about the different features encountered within the individual datasets and between the two?

The ‘Archaeology of Social Dynamics‘ unit, hosted in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IMF, Barcelona), in collaboration with the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, is organizing the 1st Conference on the EARLY NEOLITHIC of EUROPE (Barcelona, 6-8 November, 2019).
www.ene2019.org

Registration is open. Call for abstracts is also open until May 15, 2019. We positively welcome multidisciplinary approaches, regional syntheses and/or contextualized case studies.

This conference aims to be a meeting of researchers studying the Early Neolithic in Europe and surroundings areas, in relation with the Neolithisation process in the continent. This process followed different rhythms and presented singularities in each geographic area, and was therefore a very complex phenomenon. In order to address this scientific challenge, the conference is organised in nine thematic sessions:

- Neolithic spread and supraregional interactions,
  chaired by Catherine Perlès (Université Paris Nanterre);
- Chronology and modelling,
  chaired by Stephen Shennan (University College London);
- Human–environment interaction,
  chaired by Jean-François Berger (Université Lumière Lyon);
- Population characteristics and dynamics,
  chaired by Mattias Jakobsson (Uppsala Universitet);
- Territory and settlement,
  chaired by Daniela Hofmann (University of Hamburg);
- Subsistence,
  chaired by Amy Bogaard (University of Oxford);
- Technological processes,
  chaired by Annelou van Gijn (Universiteit Leiden);
- Funerary practices,
  chaired by Christian Jeunesse (Université de Strasbourg);
- Symbolism,
  chaired by Goce Naumov (University Goce Delcev).

"El presente trabajo se basa sobre todo en el hallazgo de los ídolos aparecidos en la Pijotilla (Badajoz), con una generalización de los mismos relacionados con otros del occidente de la península Ibérica. Los ídolos de La Pijotilla han sido publicados en el número de Zephyrus (Salamanca) dedicado al Centenario de Sautuola (1979) y a él nos remitimos para una concretización del tema. Dentro del complejo ajuar que acompaña al difunto en los se-pulcros megalíticos o que se encuentran en los poblados del periodo calcolítico, quizás sea el ídolo el elemento más espectacular, tanto por lo que conlleva como pieza religiosa, adentrándonos así en las creencias de un pueblo prehistórico-como por su plástica, la cual, a veces rebasa los esquemas que en un principio podíamos presuponer para tal cultura. Estas piezas, además, plantean una problemática mayor al tratar su dispersión geográfica y su origen-cronología. Es a través de estas manifestaciones externas como podemos indagar en el sentimiento religioso del hombre prehistórico, cuyo sentido total se nos escapa al igual que muchos significados de los que nunca podremos estar completamente seguros y que aceptamos de acuerdo con nuestros propios esquemas."

The purpose of this doctorate thesis is to be able to provide new information pertaining to the belief system of the Northern Mesopotamia as a result of investigating the figurines and idols existent in the museums of Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Adıyaman.
Through the figurines and idols investigated, fairly deep knowledge was obtained about the civilizations located between the rivers Tigris and Euphrate.
In the study, the features of the figurines and idols, such as functions, iconography, form and dating were evaluated in many respects.
Due to the needs of the figurines and idols felt by the Northern Mesopotamian communities during prehistoric and historic periods, their beliefs, pleasures, the techniques they developed and their interactions with different cultural regions were all dealt with. The research was carried out by following a chronological order on figurines and idols originating from Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Furthermore, attempts have been made to identify their interactions with samples in different regions. Figurines and idols have an important position in Anatolian culture-arts and archeology. Throughout prehistoric and historical periods, the anthropomorphism figurine understanding has always shown a parallel development and spreading line with religious beliefs.