For at least 100,000 years, people have produced art as a means of social interaction, to form alliances, to establish territories, to express themselves, to practice their religions, and to broadcast important information (MacDonald 2014:6417). First attested examples appear at Blombos Cave, South Africa, with evidence for the use of ochre-based pigments and shell ornaments (Wengrow & Graeber 2015:2). The explosion of ‘art’ in the European Upper Palaeolithic is an illusion created by
68
the arrival of Homo sapiens with a far longer prehistory of symbolic representation in Africa (Watkins 2013b:5). Whilst a great deal of research has focused on cave ‘art’ (especially cave painting at sites like Lascaux and Altamira) as the ‘origins’ of symbolic behaviour; in reality, three-dimensional animal and human sculptures, engraved and painted blocks, and simple ‘nonfigurative’ motifs appeared at least 15,000 years before the first cave was painted (White 1992:538).
Figure 2.25 Palaeolithic rock engravings: a) 1-2. Rock engravings from Palanlı Cave, 3. Kahn-I Melkan and That-I Melkhan; b) Rock painting from Latmos showing geometric motifs and figures (Sagona & Zimansky
2009); c) Rock face engraving from Çamlı, in the Kars province (Sagona & Zimansky 2009)
Though data from South-West Asia is comparatively limited to its European and African counterparts, examples of Palaeolithic symbolic material show clear similarities to the material that follows. Examples of symbolically elaborated material from South-West Asia in the Palaeolithic include linear rock engravings in caves of Mount Carmel (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1981), alongside rock art from Palanlı Cave, Kahn-I Melkan, Çamlı , That-I Melkhan, Tekerlek Dağı (Figure 2.25), the and ancient mount Latmos in western Anatolia (Sagona & Zimansky 2009:27). The art from Latmos clearly belongs to a different tradition, as there are no engravings or carvings. Instead, stylised human figures are interspersed with what appear to be reptiles and geometric motifs in red paint. The anthropomorphic figures have t-shaped or M-shaped heads, and their arms are often raised (Sagona & Zimansky 2009).
Figure 2.26 Palaeolithic incised stone from: a) the Aurignacian at Hayonim Cave (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1981:35); b) the Middle Palaeolithic at the Golan Heights (Marshack 1996:357); c) the Aurignacian at Hayonim
Cave (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1981:33)
a) b) c)
69
Portable decorated items are found in the Aurignacian levels of Hayonim Cave (Bar-Yosef & Belfer- Cohen 1981), the Kebaran site of Urkan e-Rubb IIa, as well as on the Golan Heights near the village of Quneitra (Figure 2.26). The latter has clear evidence for a planned sequence of categorising strokes and a continuing sequence of changing right and left-hand behaviours (Marshack 1996:359). In addition to stones, more than 50 pieces of incised carved animal bone have been found at Kharaneh IV. They are remarkably similar to contemporary finds at Ksar Akil, Saaide, Ohalo II, and even Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe (Maher, Richter & Stock 2012:74). The symbolic material of the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic emerged from an already established system.
2.9.2
EPIPALAEOLITHIC
Elaborate behaviour in the Epipalaeolithic (Figure 2.27) is evident not only in the manufacture of figurines, but also in the decoration of utilitarian items such as decorated grooved stones, stone vessels, sickle hafts, and handles etc. (Belfer-Cohen & Bar-Yosef 2002:25). Alongside these decorated items were a large number of beads used in personal adornment (Chapter 9 - Figure 9.1). A large variety of marine molluscs, in particular, were used for fabricating decorations such as headdresses, necklaces, belts and so forth. The dentalium shell headdress from El Wad (Chapter 9 - Figure 9.2) is particularly striking. This use of personal adornments has often been used as an example of a greater symbolic mechanism, but they also indicate emerging trade networks (Bar-Yosef 1983:22). We do not know how the individual defined her/himself within their community but it is worth considering that there might have been a need for more markers of identity within these more socially complex contexts (Belfer-Cohen & Goring-Morris 2011:S212)
Figure 2.27 Decorated utilitarian items: a) 2. Large slab with engraved meander and square patterns Wadi Hammeh 27, 4. Basalt shaft straightener Nahal Oren Catalogue No. 22, 5- 6. Decorated basalt mortars Shukbah and Ain Mallaha (Bar-Yosef 1997:172); b) 1,4. Decorated sickle hafts Kebarah and El Wad, 2. Gazelle head Nahal Oren, 3. Human head El Wad, 5. Human torso Ain Mallaha, 6. A couple engaged in intercourse Ain Sakhri, 7. Schematic human head Ain Mallaha, 8. Schematic human El Wad, 9. double figurine Nahal Oren,
ungulate and human head (Bar-Yosef 1997:170)
70
2.9.3
PPNA
For a long time, research suggested that there is little evidence of PPNA art (Bar-Yosef 1992:20) in contrast to the elaborate Epipalaeolithic and the ‘symbolic revolution’ of the PPNB. New research has now shown this was simply an excavation bias, which has been recently corrected. An impressive range of evidence emerges from sites already discussed above in relation to their public buildings: Wadi Faynan 16 (Mithen et al. 2011), Hallan Çemi (Rosenberg & Redding 2002), Jerf el Ahmar (Verhoeven 2002a; Watkins 2010), and Göbekli Tepe (Peters & Schmidt 2004). Indeed, these sites alone prove that the PPNA has a rich repertoire of symbolic behaviour. Sites such as Jerf el Ahmar and Wadi Faynan also have an impressive range of small pieces of symbolically elaborated material (Figure 2.28)
Figure 2.28 Decorated stone artefacts from a) 1-3. Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur & Abbès 2002:288); b) Wadi Faynan 16A, SF82 (Finlayson et al. 2009)
2.9.4
PPNB
Figure 2.29 PPNB figurines and plaster statues: a) 1. Male figurine from Cafer Höyük, 2. Female figurine from Çayönü, 3. Female figurine from Çayönü, 4. Human figurine from Ramad, 5. Female figurine from Cafer Höyük,
6. Male figurine from Munhata, 7. Female figurine from Munhata, 8. Plaster statues from ‘Ain Ghazal, 9. Female figurine from ‘Ain Ghazal, 10. plaster statues from Jericho (Bar-Yosef 1997:174); b) animal figurines
from Ain Ghazal (Twiss 2007:27)
a) b)
71
Due to extensive excavation in this period, it is unsurprising that that the PPNB artistic repertoire is quite extensive, including not only stone, clay, and bone figurines (Figure 2.29), but also stone masks, plaster busts and statues and even extends to mortuary rituals where skulls were plastered and painted (Rollefson, Kafafi & Simmons 1992:466). The repertoire is very similar to the preceding PPNA, but the larger assemblage makes this period far more impressive in the density of artefacts.
2.9.5
PN
From the end of the PPNB, a new village system emerged; a crucial period in which the foundations were laid for the development of complex society and urban civilisations. The lithics, architecture, and mortuary practices of the PN are, on average, less complex than those of the PPN, but it should not be seen as a regression. Sha’ar Hagolan, for example, has a rich artistic assemblage and architecture which demonstrates continued social complexity, and the contemporaneous PN sites appear to have been linked in an intricate regional interaction sphere (Twiss 2007:33). PN Çatalhöyük also has an immense repertoire of symbolically elaborated material. While evidence for communal ritual is scarce, there seems to be evidence which indicates a domestic, secluded, private kind of ritual space, probably related to individuals and households. It is thought that perhaps the decorated pottery which emerged at this time replaced other modes of ritual behaviour, where the use of art and the interpretation of style enhanced group maintenance by ‘visualising the behavioural norms of a group and an individual’s conforming’ while also highlighting social differentiation within and between groups (Verhoeven 2002a:10).
2.10
CONCLUSIONS
What is evident from the data presented here, is that the social and subsistence changes associated with the Neolithic are far more complex than often described. Different strategies and adaptations were adopted by neighbouring communities as well as those across unique regional contexts. The changes described here, whilst appearing to be linear, are more accurately considered to have been in constant flux. Increased population, sedentary behaviours, and changes in architecture, manipulation of mortuary practices, symbolic behaviour, a wide range of symbolically elaborated material, adoption of new subsistence strategies are all regionally unique.
My thesis hopes to assess many of the theories presented in this chapter regarding the causes of this social and economic change, and every facet of Neolithic behaviour informs that assessment. Landscape and environment set the stage and delimit the natural boundaries of interaction. Evidence for climate change considers external factors which may have instigated adaptation and change. Sedentary behaviour results in very specific social and territorial consequences. Subsistence changes not only alters diet, but more significantly imposes changes on landscape perceptions, concepts of ownership, the value of household cooperation, the need for storage, and the
72
implications of shared or private storage etc. All this greatly affects social organisation and interaction. Furthermore, these tangible changes in social organisation are manifests in domestic architecture, communal projects and structures, and in mortuary practice (despite potential masking). Interlinking all these facets, is the symbolically elaborated material culture under investigation here.
An overarching pattern is clear: an increase in sedentary behaviour and changes in subsistence strategies seemingly coincided with dramatic changes in social relationships and strategies resulting in a measurable change in elaborate symbolic material. It is the implications of the correlation between these changes which this investigation will attempt to unravel; to test current theories regarding the cause and consequence of the dramatic changes seen in the Neolithic and establish the factors involved in the florescence of ‘art’.
73