Papers by ESTELLE ORRELLE
Israel Exploration Journal, 2016
Four symbolic artefacts were recovered from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah cul... more Four symbolic artefacts were recovered from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah culture) site of Neveh Yam, dated to the sixth--fifth millennia BCE. These comprise two anthropomorphic figurines made of stone, one anthropomorphic image incised on bone and a sherd with zoomorphic incisions. These artefacts are described and discussed with reference to similar objects found in additional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and later sites in Mesopotamia, the Aegean and the Iberian Peninsula. It is proposed that the bone figurines from Neveh Yam, ʿEn Ṣippori and Ha-Gosherim could represent a symbolic marker for the Wadi Rabah culture and contemporary cultures in the South Levant. 151 DANIEL VAINSTUB and DAVID BEN-SHLOMO: A Hebrew Seal and an Ostracon from Tel Hebron ABSTRACT: This article describes and discusses a private Hebrew seal and a fragment of a Hebrew ostracon recently found in an archaeological excavation at Tel Hebron (Roumeida). The i...
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1996
This study describes material imagery portraying anthropomorphic subjects executed in stone and c... more This study describes material imagery portraying anthropomorphic subjects executed in stone and clay which appear on sites of the Yarmukian culture in the Southern Levant during the sixth millennium BC. Speculations are made and interpretations offered for the incised stone and clay images of persons and genitals as artefacts recording encoded information. It is suggested that some kinds of imagery are associated with age and reproductive status and relate to gender categorization, and yet other kinds could be related to socio-political discussion.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 2017
Much has been written about the Levantine PrePottery Neolithic as a period of innovation and chan... more Much has been written about the Levantine PrePottery Neolithic as a period of innovation and change, particularly regarding the transition to food production and sedentism. But this period in general, and more specifi cally, the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (MPPNB; ~10150-9725 calBP), also witnessed a dramatic increase in symbolic imagery, both in diversity and number. Notably, Southern Levantine MPPNB sites have yielded a rich symbolic repertoire comprising stone mobiliary items such as vessels, plaques and grooved stones, also characteristic of the preceding Natufi an and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (e.g. Belfer-Cohen 1991; Noy 1991; Hershman and Belfer-Cohen 2010; Shaham and Belfer-Cohen 2013; Vered 2013; Orrelle 2014; Major 2018), but, in addition, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic fi gurines, human statuary, plastered human skulls, stone masks and decorative installations (e.g. Bar-Yosef and Alon 1988; Garfi nkel 1995; Yizraeli-Noy 1999; Kuijt and GoringMorris 2002; Orrelle 2014; Ro...
Fundamental Issues in Archaeology, 2002
This volume emerged from an increasing awareness among archaeologists that while researchers have... more This volume emerged from an increasing awareness among archaeologists that while researchers have explored some of the technological, subsistence, and economic dimensions of the Near Eastern Neolithic, far less attention has been paid to understanding the nature of social organization for this important period. In relation to other topics, it has only been in the last 20 years or so that researchers have started to study the nature of Neolithic social organization in any detailed fashion. Given that the Neolithic provides our earliest case studies for how food production, social differentiation, and population aggregation and growth are interrelated, it is all that much more surprising to recognize that as archaeologists we do not have a comprehensive understanding of some of the social foundations within Neolithic communities. Archaeologists, for example, have only a limited understanding of how the household served as a social and economic unit, how kinship might have been organized, or the degree to which leadership was identified, shared, and allocated within communities. The breadth of research in this volume furthers our understanding of the Neolithic as an economic event, opening u p what is unquestionably the Pandora's box of the Neolithic: studying the dynamic nature of social arrangements, how these behaviors were linked to material culture, and how they help us understand the trajectory of life within Neolithic communities. Ultimately, addressing these issues is not only challenging, but it requires focusing new attention on issues of social agency and understanding how different social practices may have been employed to define, shape, and manipulate identities at the household, kin-group, and community level. This tentative exploration of human agency, while still in its infancy, represents an imporvii viii PREFACE PREFACE ix give to Eliot Werner, Archaeology Czar at Plenum, who has made the processes of negotiation and publication a direct, honest, and enjoyable task. Publication of this work was facilitated by critical financial support from the American School of Prehistoric Research, support that I am most grateful for. The cover artwork kindly provided by Nigel Goring-Morris and Michael Rosenberg is from their excavations at Kfar HaHoresh and Hallan ‚ emi. Finally, I want to express my thanks to Meredith S. Chesson, my wife, friend, and mate, who serves as a continuing source of advice, help, patience, and support. It is to her that this book is dedicated. Contents PART I. INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 • Life in Neolithic Farming Communities:
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1999
I would like to end this review with two final points. First, we are told that Yarmukian figurine... more I would like to end this review with two final points. First, we are told that Yarmukian figurines were unearthed by the authors in their excavations of Nahal Zehora II (Gopher & Orrelle 1996, 274). Why then, instead of presenting the newly discovered material, is the ...
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
ABSTRACT
Four symbolic artefacts were recovered from the Late Neolithic/Early
Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah cul... more Four symbolic artefacts were recovered from the Late Neolithic/Early
Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah culture) site of Neveh Yam, dated to the sixth–fifth millennia BCE. These comprise two anthropomorphic figurines made of stone, one anthropomorphic image incised on bone and a sherd with zoomorphic incisions. These artefacts are described and discussed with reference to similar objects found in additional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and later sites in Mesopotamia, the Aegean and the Iberian Peninsula. It is proposed that the bone figurines from Neveh Yam, Ein Zippori and Ha-Gosherim could represent a symbolic marker for the Wadi Rabah culture and contemporary cultures in the southern Levant.
Snakes of Stone, 2020
This paper presents a unique modified limestone object recovered from the LPPNB site of Nahal Rod... more This paper presents a unique modified limestone object recovered from the LPPNB site of Nahal Roded 110, located deep within the arid Negev Desert. Carved to form an oval with a central elongated perforation, the stone was decorated with incised meanders, encircling both faces and representing, in our view, a unique 3D representation of a snake/snakes.
Drawing on previous Near Eastern Neolithic as well as global symbolism and mythologies, we present in this paper a discussion of the stone’s shape and the image it carries, suggesting a possible symbolic link between the two as relating to concepts of cyclicity and seasonality. This meaning is further emphasized by other finds from the site. Together they provide an exceptional window into the lesser-known symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levantine desert communities.
Time and Mind, 2018
This paper investigates a corpus of Neolithic clay bovine figurines recovered from archaeological... more This paper investigates a corpus of Neolithic clay bovine figurines recovered from archaeological sites in the Central and Southern Levant. Despite numerous investigations, their function as utilitarian versus ritual objects is still unclear. In order to assess this issue, the depositional contexts and physical characteristics of just over 500 figurines were examined. The results reveal formalized and repetitive contextual data for the majority of the figurines studied, as well as commonality in their form and modifications. With reference to analogues from later Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft texts, support is found for the identification of the bovine figurines as objects associated with acts of ritualization, especially sacrifice, tied to the veneration of aurochs in Pre-Ceramic Neolithic periods. Furthermore, a symbolic structure linking bulls, sun, fire, ash, purification, fertility and rebirth was identified, possibly tying the bovine figurines to later fire rituals that are celebrated worldwide.
this book demonstrates that the surprising iconography of human images in the archaeological asse... more this book demonstrates that the surprising iconography of human images in the archaeological assemblages of the levantine neolithic indicates that they were gods. an analysis of the iconography of the human-like artifacts of my data reveals genital shapes used metaphorically to portray androgynous images as well as elements of therianthropic imagery and red pigment. this iconography meets the predictions of the evolutionary anthropological hypothesis, the 'female cosmetic coalition model' (fcc), which describes the first supernatural symbols as fused male: female, human: animal and red, and predicts that the iconography of early gods would bear this same symbolic syntax. My book shows that the material images of the Natufian and Neolithic in the Levant fit this model closely, confirming their identity as gods.
New Analogy" envisages universal ideas in the ideational field unrestrained by requirements of cu... more New Analogy" envisages universal ideas in the ideational field unrestrained by requirements of culture-historical continuity or ecological restraints. Ideas which have survived millennia through temporal diffusion or replication of oral and other traditions over vast areas are useful in inferring prehistoric ideation of symbolic meanings. "Lower range" analysis of mortuary data can provide a relevant link between there sources and archaeological subject. One such universal idea is the 'muelos' belief, shared by many ethnographically documented cultures throughout the world. This belief which links brain, bone marrow and semen as essentially common substances is thought to have arisen from an original Paleolithic Urkultur. The preservation and distribution of precious life matter may be considered as one of the ideas behind bone cults providing an explanation for a variety of ritual such as headhunting, decapitation, skull treatments and cannibalism. Regularities in skeletal remains in Paleolithic and Neolithic periods in the Near East and Nubia may support the idea that a muelos belief operated. If so, it may be further speculated that inward oriented rituals, where vital body substances are manipulated for the reproduction of society, characterized these societies, offering an insight into the elusive archaeology of the mind in preliterate periods.
This dissertation demonstrates that the surprising iconography of human images in the archaeologi... more This dissertation demonstrates that the surprising iconography of human images in the archaeological assemblages of the Levantine Neolithic indicates that they were gods. An analysis of the iconography of the human-like artifacts of my data reveals genital shapes used metaphorically to portray androgynous images as well as elements of therianthropic imagery and red pigment. This iconography meets the predictions of the evolutionary anthropological hypothesis, the 'Female Cosmetic Coalition model' (FCC), which describes the first supernatural symbols as fused male: female, human: animal and red, and predicts that the iconography of early gods would bear this same symbolic syntax. My thesis shows that the material images of the Natufian and Neolithic in the Levant fit this model closely, confirming their identity as gods.
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Papers by ESTELLE ORRELLE
Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah culture) site of Neveh Yam, dated to the sixth–fifth millennia BCE. These comprise two anthropomorphic figurines made of stone, one anthropomorphic image incised on bone and a sherd with zoomorphic incisions. These artefacts are described and discussed with reference to similar objects found in additional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and later sites in Mesopotamia, the Aegean and the Iberian Peninsula. It is proposed that the bone figurines from Neveh Yam, Ein Zippori and Ha-Gosherim could represent a symbolic marker for the Wadi Rabah culture and contemporary cultures in the southern Levant.
Drawing on previous Near Eastern Neolithic as well as global symbolism and mythologies, we present in this paper a discussion of the stone’s shape and the image it carries, suggesting a possible symbolic link between the two as relating to concepts of cyclicity and seasonality. This meaning is further emphasized by other finds from the site. Together they provide an exceptional window into the lesser-known symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levantine desert communities.
Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah culture) site of Neveh Yam, dated to the sixth–fifth millennia BCE. These comprise two anthropomorphic figurines made of stone, one anthropomorphic image incised on bone and a sherd with zoomorphic incisions. These artefacts are described and discussed with reference to similar objects found in additional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and later sites in Mesopotamia, the Aegean and the Iberian Peninsula. It is proposed that the bone figurines from Neveh Yam, Ein Zippori and Ha-Gosherim could represent a symbolic marker for the Wadi Rabah culture and contemporary cultures in the southern Levant.
Drawing on previous Near Eastern Neolithic as well as global symbolism and mythologies, we present in this paper a discussion of the stone’s shape and the image it carries, suggesting a possible symbolic link between the two as relating to concepts of cyclicity and seasonality. This meaning is further emphasized by other finds from the site. Together they provide an exceptional window into the lesser-known symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levantine desert communities.