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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

J.U.N.K. .43/13—Nov. 3003

 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

Man1” to form male and female images

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.
The figurines were fashioned in a
modular manner, with individual oval or
rounded and bulging segments, stuck
together in the manner of “Michelin-
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
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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 Journal of Unproductable and Non-reproducible Knowledge Vol. 43/13

figurines from some neighboring a highly beloved specimen of canine

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).
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 olfactory-
pleasing 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 Fig. 2. Yarmukian figurine (based on
mélange of at leastl “57 varieties”. Garfinkel 2002:cover).

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Fig. 4. Prima faecies evidence (after Fizzy

2003), cf. Fig. 3.

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
Fig. 3. Rendering of a Yarmukian Figurine thereof. Indeed, so obvious is the
(based on Garfinkel 2002:130). similitude between these ancient and
modern objects, it is deemed virtually
In lieu of willing progeny to supervise certain the inspiration for these Late
this interaction with the domestic Neolithic works of art should be sought
animal, it has fallen to this writer (in the in similar, contemporary Neolithic
interests of maintaining a minimal level primary objects.
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.

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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 Fig. 7. A prima faecies article (after Fizzy
have consumed such delicacies as dates 2003) of the type that inspired fertility (or
fetidity?) figurines.
when available by “wolfing” them down,
stones and all. Ingested date stones, of
a primitive Yarmukian ancestor with
cellulose and other indigestible
such a vision would spark the urge in an
materials, would have been excreted in
artistically creative brain to duplicate a
the same way as straw is found in
naturally create effigy of such a clearly
ruminants’ dung. One, or even two
anthropomorphic subject. Such visions
strategically arranged such date stones
must have been at once both clear and
would have created an impression in
mystical. They would have inspired re-
Yarmukian people’s minds of a
creation of god-given (deus ex-canis)
schematic human model, complete with
effigies in materials more durable and
details such as eyes.
less offensive to human olfactory glands.

In summer this would have had to have

Such an occurrence may be understood
occurred within a matter of a very few
as an “excremental vision”. It is not
days, otherwise desiccation of the
difficult to imagine that an encounter by
primary objects, caused by extreme heat
and especially direct sunlight, would
4
Such encounters remain common even today, have quickly robbed them of their
especially in urban settings, but they are more primary visual and olfactory
likely to end with loud pronouncements of
expletives rather than become inspiration for
characteristics. Winter with its wet spells
objects of veneration. 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 Ha-
Golan and other sites (e.g. Garfinkel
2002: 107-139) Kafafi 2001: Figs. 20-
23). 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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