Download - An Alternative Interpretation for the Material Imagery of the Yarmukian, a Neolithic Culture of the Sixth Millennium BC in the Southern Levant

Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6:2 (1996), pp. 255-79

An Alternative Interpretation for the Material Imagery ofthe Yarmukian, a Neolithic Culture of the Sixth Millennium

BC in the Southern Levant

Avi Gopher & Estelle Orrelle

This study describes material imagery portraying anthropomorphic subjects executed instone and clay which appear on sites of the Yarmukian culture in the Southern Levantduring the sixth millennium BC. Speculations are made and interpretations offered for theincised stone and clay images of persons and genitals as artefacts recording encodedinformation. It is suggested that some kinds of imagery are associated with age andreproductive status and relate to gender categorization, and yet other kinds could be

related to socio-political discussion.

Two prominent features of the material remains ofthe Yarmukian culture of the sixth millennium BC(uncalibrated C14 years) are the appearance of theearliest pottery assemblage in the Southern Levant,and a rich assemblage of both stone and clay itemsof material imagery.1

Imagery items include two major groups —incised pebbles and clay figurines. In this article, weoffer possible cultural explanations for the meaningand function of these items. We suggest that theincised stone pebbles encode information whichrecords reproductive status of women at variousstages. These stone items could be a manifestation ofa social mechanism for exercising control over (fe-male) reproduction and this might indicate that achange in the role of females in society took place ina new socio-economic order. The clay items, appar-ently of steatopygous women, men, and androgy-nous persons are constructed in most cases of combinedrepresentations of male and female genitalia. Theuse of mixed gender symbols in one image maysuggest that an element of mutable gender existed.

While the appearance of these two imagerygroups in the Yarmukian culture is innovative, theyboth contain certain elements of earlier conceptswhich appear in the Neolithic world of the Levant.Basing our comments on some of the data available

to us at present, our aim is not to investigate the fullinventory of Yarmukian imagery items or the detailsof this assemblage, but rather to propose alternativeobservations, speculations and interpretations for thisgroup of artefacts that have traditionally been givena rather general 'sympathetic magic', 'fertility' inter-pretation. We shall concentrate on possible mean-ings of images and their role in society. While wesuspect that the suggested interpretations may haverelevance of a cross-cultural nature, we concentratehere on their relevance to the Yarmukian culture.

Background

Single examples of Palaeolithic mobile imagery havebeen described from the southern Levant (LowerPalaeolithic: Goren-Inbar 1986; Upper Palaeolithic:Belfer-Cohen & Bar-Yosef 1981; and Epipalaeolithic:Hovers 1990). Imagery items are abundant in theNatufian culture of the mid-eleventh to mid-ninthmillennium BC, representing mostly animals, but afew human figures are present (for summaries seeValla 1975; Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989b; Henry1989, chap. 7).

The early Neolithic inventory of the late ninthto mid-eighth millennium BC — the Pre-PotteryNeolithic A (PPNA) — is mostly comprised of

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5cm.

Figure 1. Group IA incised pebbles from Munhata (1,2,4& 5: courtesy of]. Perrot) and Sha'ar Hagolan (3, 6,7,8 & 9:after Stekelis 1972).

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Material Imagery of the Yarmukian

anthropomorphic representations (Bar-Yosef 1980;Cauvin 1979; Echegaray 1966; Stekelis & Yizraeli 1963;Noy 1979; 1985; Kenyon & Holland 1982) with veryfew, if any, zoomorphic, and some incised stones.Clay figures of seated women here make their firstappearance (Bar Yosef et al. 1991).

In the second half of the eighth and in the sev-enth millennium BC — the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Bperiod (PPNB) — a wealth of imagery items appearincluding both anthropomorphic and zoomorphicstone and clay objects (e.g. Beidha: Kirkbride 1966;Munhata: Perrot 1968; Jericho: Kenyon & Holland1982; Abu Gosh: Lechevallier 1978; Tel Ali: Prausnitz1970; 1975; Tel Ramad: de Contenson 1971; and NahalHemar: Bar-Yosef & Alon 1985; 1988; and Ain Ghazal:RoUefson 1983; 1986; Rollefson et al. 1992). New PPNBelements include stone masks, plastered-modelledskulls /faces and large clay built figures (Rollefson1983).

The Yarmukian culture

The Yarmukian was recognized as a cultural entityin the early 1950s following excavations at Sha'arHagolan (Stekelis 1950-51; 1972). Yarmukian layerson various sites were excavated during the 1950sand 1960s (Perrot 1964; 1966; 1968; Kaplan 1958; 1965;1978) and during the past decade both in Israel(Garfinkel 1992a; 1993; Gopher & Tsuk 1990) and inJordan (Kafafi 1985; 1986; 1988; Muheisen et al. 1988;Simmons et al. 1989; Rollefson et al. 1992). Most ofthese sites yielded imagery items of the kinds men-tioned above. This new wave of research enabled abetter acquaintance with this cultural entity and afew summaries appeared (Garfinkel 1993; Gopher &Gophna 1993; Gopher 1995; Kafafi 1987; 1993) inwhich it became clear that the Yarmukian is a verydistinct entity of the Southern Levant dated to thelast two thirds of the sixth millennium BC. Innova-tions included the production of pottery. A rich sym-bolic array appeared represented both on the potteryas decoration, and in imagery items.

These imagery items are unique to the Yar-mukian. The following Wadi Raba culture of thefifth millennium BC (Kaplan 1972; Gopher & Gophna1993; Gopher 1995) yielded a different inventory ofanimal figures in clay and new forms of anthropo-morphous representations (Kaplan 1969; 1972). Thetypical Yarmukian clay and stone imagery is thusunique to this entity, restricted in time to some 600C14 years and to a specific area of c. 10,000 sq. km(see Gopher & Gophna 1993), with no precedents orsuccessors.

The inventory of Yarmukian imagery

As a basis for our study we use the Sha'ar Hagolandata (Stekelis 1966; 1972; Garfinkel 1992; 1993), theMunhata stone items given to us for study by J.Perrot (Gopher & Orrelle 1995a), and the publishedMunhata clay items (Garfinkel 1992a; 1993). The 'port-able imagery' of the Yarmukian culture was dividedas follows. We allow ourselves, at the descriptionstage, to incorporate speculation in group names,which we deal with at a later stage.

Incised pebblesGroup I - Representations of womenType A. Items made both on narrow elongated oroval pebbles, sometimes polished, bearing usuallyonly the two horizontal slits at one end which couldrepresent eyes (Figs. 1 & 10:1-3) (Stekelis 1972). Someof these (from Sha'ar Hagolan only) have a singledrilled hole. Red painted areas appear on many ofthese items (Stekelis 1972).

Type B. Items made on oval rounded pebbles whichcarry incisions of various depths. The deep incisionsindicate emphasized hips and groins, thighs and but-tocks, and shallower incisions delineate hair, eyes,necks, hands and possibly garments (Figs. 2 & 10:4-5) (Stekelis 1972; Perrot 1968; Gopher & Orrelle 1995a).

Group II - Representations of vulvaeType A. Oval or rounded, basalt or limestone pebblesbearing a slit or groove (Figs. 3:1-7 & 12:l-2)2 wereinterpreted as female vulvae (Stekelis 1972, pis. 56-8). Many bear red paint marks and some of them arepolished (Stekelis 1972; Garfinkel 1992a).

Type B. Flat wadi pebbles, of limestone or basalt withparallel incisions (Stekelis 1972; and here Figs. 3:8-10 & 12:3,6) running in a horizontal or vertical direc-tion when holding the pebble upright on thelongitudinal axis.

Type C. Pebbles with a central deep incision and anumber of horizontal incisions on one or both sides(Figs. 3:11,12 & 12:4).

Type D. Pebbles with both vertical and horizontalcombined incisions on the face of the pebble forminga chequered/net pattern in the shape of a rectangleor rhomboid on the pebble's long axis (Figs. 4:1-3 &12:5,10-11).Group II items vary in size and some bear drilledholes together with incised lines.

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CMS.

CMS.

Figure 2. Group IB incised pebbles from Munhata (1 & 2: courtesy of]. Perrot) and Sha'ar Hagolan (3 & 4: after Stekelis1972).

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10 cm

85cm.

10

11 12

Figure 3. Incised pebbles of Group IIAfrom Munhata (1 & 2: courtesy of]. Perrot) and Sha'ar Hagolan (3-7), Group IIB(8-9) and Group IIC (10-12: after Stekelis 1972).

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CMS. I

•>:

J8 10

Figure 4. Grow;? J/D: 1-3 and Group III phallic objects from Munhata (1-8: courtesy ofj. Perrot) and Sha'ar Hagolan(9: after Stekelis 1972).

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Group III - Representations of phalliThese objects portray male genitalia — phalli. Theyinclude both naturalistic items and schematic por-trayals and differ in size (Figs. 4:4-10 & 12:5,10-11).One feature common to almost all Group III items isa single wavy horizontal line indicating the glanspenis. This feature may appear in another group ofincised pebbles to symbolize the phallus (Fig. 5:2).Schematic pointed phalli representations appear instone and clay (Fig. 4:6,8-10), some having a grooverunning vertically along their length.

Group IV - Spheroids and pebbles with incised motifsSpherical-shaped pebbles and stone balls bearing in-cisions (Fig. 5). These items are rather small, withlinear incisions creating motifs — vertical and hori-zontal lines forming a cross, or as in Figure 5:2,where a horizontal line cuts two converging lines.The vertical and converging lines are central fea-tures on the pebble items symbolizing vulvae andgroins (Groups I & II). The horizontal line appearson the group of phallic representations (Group III).In this group of items these lines appear superim-posed, one upon the other.

Clay figuresGroup V - Androgynous personsThis group includes items made of clay, sometimesred slipped and burnished or polished. The tech-nique of manufacture consists of applying short rollsof clay to a central core to form a human-like figure(Figs. 6-8 & 13). The hindquarters and legs of someof the figures are constructed from a series of clayrolls which form steatopygous buttocks and thighswhich taper towards the extremities (Fig. 6). Some ofthe figures appear to be sitting (e.g. Fig. 6); somehave an elongated pointed head or headdress andtwo puffy elliptical applications set diagonally oneither side of the head, slit down their length, whichgive an appearance of eyes (Figs. 7:1-2 & 8:1-5). Theeyes have been dubbed 'coffee bean' eyes, and it hasbeen pointed out that they are reminiscent too ofother forms found in nature such as date pits andgrains of wheat or barley (Noy 1985). On some of theitems a smaller such application is placed lower downhorizontally and forms a prominent pouting 'mouth'-like feature (Fig. 7:1). An eliptic shaped pellet setbetween the two 'eyes' gives the appearance of anose. Small spherical applications below the 'eyes'look like fat 'cheeks' (Fig. 7:1). The torsos made fromclay applications appear to be arranged in segmentsand short thin clay rolls form 'arms' — in a numberof examples, one lies alongside the body while the

other supports a breast or rests across the stomacharea (Figs. 6 & 7:2). While similar in general appear-ance, each figure or fragment appears to be slightlydifferent in sexual characteristic detail. Some haveenlarged breasts, some phalli and some have both(e.g. Fig. 8.5).

Group VI - Male imagesThis group includes 'stick-like' (cylindrical?) torsosmade of clay with prominent buttocks and testiclesattached. They are all fragments (Fig. 9).

Early interpretations

Since its first appearance, this Yarmukian imageryhas been interpreted with only general cursory ref-erence to the circumstances of the context of theYarmukian culture. An early interpretation of Stekelisdeclares that 'It is the opinion of most scholars thatNeolithic figurines served as idols and that they weremade specifically for the purpose of primitive magic'(Stekelis 1950-51).

In a later interpretation, he queried whetherthey were merely 'art' or domestic fertility symbols.He quoted the role of female figurines in the ritual ofprehistoric societies of western Europe (as describedby Gordon Childe) and in contemporary 'primitive'societies where magical powers are attributed to thefemale body. While noting that the female figurinesof the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods have incommon an exaggerated representation of genitals,breasts and hips, he suggested that the significanceof their reappearance in the Neolithic period wasconnected with the society, being an agricultural one,desiring fertility not only for humans and animalsbut also for the soil and its fruits. He also raised thepossibility that Neolithic female figurines are theprototype of the Mother-Goddess, that 'Neolithicfigurines like the Yarmukian were also, it may besurmised, used as amulets and sacred objects forfertility, protection against evil, relief in child-bear-ing and in the cult of the dead' (Stekelis 1972, 27).Wreschner (1976) saw in the slanted 'eyes' of theType IA women pebbles ideograms of cloud lineswith shallow incised parallel 'rain lines' similar tothose appearing in the Bushman rock art of south-western Africa. He associated these with images ofwater symbolism characteristic of dry areas.

Yeivin & Mozel (1977), as well as Stekelis (1972),saw in the incised pebbles, schematized versions ofthe clay steatopygous seated female figurines foundboth at Sha'ar Hagolan and at Munhata. Yeivin &Mozel concentrate on descriptive decipherment. The

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3cm.

Figure 5. Groi/p /V pebbles with multiple symbol incisions from Munhata (1 & 3: courtesy of]. Perrot) and Sha'arHagolan (4: after Stekelis 1972).

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Figure 6. Group V seated steatopygous clay figurines from Munhata. (Courtesy of]. Perrot.)

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3cm.

Figure 7. Group V clay figurines from Munhata (1: courtesy of]. Perrot) and Sha'ar Hagolan (2 & 3: after Stekelis1972).

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3cm.

Figure 8. Group V clay figurines from Munhata (1,2 & 4: courtesy of]. Perrot),from Habashan Street Tel Aviv (3: afterKaplan 1958), and from Byblos (5: after Cauvin 1972,85).

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3cm.

Figure 9. Group VI male clay images from Munhata (1-4: courtesy of}. Perrot).

various incisions on the stone items, and partitionsbetween the various segments on the torsos of theclay items, were interpreted as delineating a 'sou-tane' (a cassock-like garment), and the elongatedhead as a mask with three sections on its back, whilethe incisions separating the segments on the legs,they suggest, were intended to emphasize their obes-ity. They regard a variety in the details of 'soutane'types as geographical indicators, differences in stylesor evidence of varying ability of the artists (Yeivin &Mozel 1977).

In a summary paper on seated figurines fromthe Neolithic period in Israel, Noy notes that seatedfigurines made of clay are known from the begin-ning of farming in the early Neolithic period. Sheconcludes that 'Their posture and the cultural con-text of their appearance suggest their connection withfertility cults. In the course of time the symbolic

language they exemplify became more elaborate'(Noy 1985, 66). Like Cauvin (1994), Noy suggests anearly original 'Goddess' figurine. Garfinkel, in a re-cent analysis of Yarmukian figurines (1992a; 1993;1995), does not favour the fertility option. In hisopinion, reproductive organs are not emphasized atall. He offers an interpretation relating these items to'religious rituals', and sees the clay figures as repre-senting deities shaped in the spirit of earlier (PPNB)traditions (1993; 1995).

In her all-embracing work on Neolithic datamostly from Europe, Gimbutas regards the motifsfound on figurines and pottery as a 'pictorial scriptfor the religion of the Old European Great Goddessconsisting of signs, symbols, and images of divini-ties' (Gimbutas 1989, xv). She includes material fromthe Near East, and specifically Yarmukian figures, inher general interpretative scheme, seeing them as

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local manifestation of a world-wide religion of theGoddess.

Alternative interpretations

This article attempts to offer meanings for these stoneand clay assemblages in their socio-economic per-spective. We prefer to interpret them as evidence ofsocio-cultural change as new economic demandschallenge older established systems and new ritualforms contest those of the old regime. Following aloose adaptation of Morphy's (1989, 3) stages forinterpreting 'art', we identify the images; locate themin time and space; suggest how they encode mean-ing; and speculate on the relationships between im-ages, their meaning and what such meaning infersfor the wider cultural system. Having identified theimages we present further interpretative stages foreach group.

Group IWe suggest that Group I incised pebbles portraywomen of different age groups. The elongated nar-row or oval items of Type IA, may represent younggirls, perhaps at menarcheal rites, whose body linesare completely concealed, only the eyes being vis-ible. The larger rounded pebbles with fat contours(Type IB) could represent older women. In variousethnographic studies, initiation ceremonies of girlsduring their first menses, include a period of seclu-sion during which girls covered up, leaving only theeyes visible. The suggestion of Wreschner (1976) thatthe eyes resemble Bushman rock art rain cloudswould reinforce the menarcheal theory since strongethnographical evidence connecting menarchealmaidens and rainfall exists (see Power 1994). If, too,the 'soutane' suggestion of Yeivin & Mozel (1977) iscorrect, then older women too were partially cov-ered up. None of the stone figures displays anybreasts or overt sexual characteristics.3

A number have hair detail (Fig. 2:2-3) — thegap in the fringe so common in female imagery laterin Mesopotamia (e.g. Amiet 1980,17). Hairstyles arewell-known means of broadcasting information(Hallpike 1969, 261) and parting in particular hasritual significance for change in the status of womenamong many groups (e.g. Tapper 1991,166).

Group IIThe incised pebbles of Group II we regard as repre-sentations of female pudenda. Like the previousgroup these represent women at different ages andreproductive stages. If this interpretation is accepted,

then one might see all the marks as encoded infor-mation. The single vertical slit-line (Type IIA) asrepresenting the genitals of girls; while a number ofparallel vertical or horizontal lines (Type IIB) mayrepresent the developed labia of older women. Otherincised patterns on these pebbles include one verti-cal slit with various combinations of incised hori-zontal or diagonal lines, sometimes only on one sideof the vertical line (Type IIC; Fig. 3:10-12). We sug-gest that the horizontal or diagonal lines may por-tray parturition scars, or even scarring from genitalmutilation (see Widstrand 1965, in Oldfield-Hayes1975). Pebbles with a net pattern, combining the ver-tical with the horizontal, therefore, take this idea onestep further, and may indicate the childbearing his-tory of a woman. This image is not simply represen-tational but rather could represent a symbolic idea.

Group II also includes items which bear one ormore central or off-centrally drilled holes; some haveincised lines raying out from these holes (Stekelis1972, pis. 58, 60 & 61). Many pebbles have red col-ouring. These suggest an even broader repertoire ofcodes.

We suggest that these incised pebbles (GroupsI and II) encoded notations in concrete form on theage and reproductive status of a woman, wherephysical maturity, sexual events and childbearinghistory and availability are recorded. They are arecord of passing time — advancing age and differ-ent events and rites of passage from girlhood up toperhaps menopause.

Linear representation and red colour could sym-bolize any of the events in the reproductive life ofwomen which are usually accompanied by blood,like the onset of menses or defloration, and whichleave linear evidence such as parturition or possiblyeven genital mutilation. Scarification, which is infact incision, on the bodies of living women, as rec-ognition of a permanent change in status, is foundthroughout the world. In reality, this kind of infor-mation about a woman would be invisible to all buta very small and specific group of people, perhapsmature women, mothers and female elders of herkin. The net motif might be regarded as symbolizingan advanced stage, recording the uterine family of anolder woman. In fact it figures in the sign language ofGimbutas, signifying amongst other things, vulva,uterus and life-giving power (Gimbutas 1989,81-7).

Our interpretation is based on a proposed iden-tification of Group II artefacts as portrayals of womenand sexual organs and as such will raise questionsand expectations from the data which will have to beanswered. The difficulty of assigning these artefacts

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3cm.

4 5

Figute 10. Group I items from Sha'ar Hagolan. (After Stekelis 1972.)

10cm.

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3cm.

Figure 11. Group IB items from Munhata. (Courtesy of]. Perrot.)

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8

Figure 12. Group IIA-IID items (1-4,6-9) and Group 111 items (5,10 & 11) from Munhata (4, 5,6,7 & 9: courtesy ofJ. Perrot) and from Sha'ar Hagokn (1-3,8 & 10-11: after Stekelis 1972).

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may be, we suggest, not so much the identificationof 'woman' or 'vulva', but rather the lack of anytheoretical basis to explain their appearance.

The oval, almond shapes appear, like theirPalaeolithic origins, in an imagery assemblage con-taining naturalistic and schematic images. They bearincisions which can be said to fit a category of 'repre-sentational mark' (Davis 1986,201), and which workbiologically, as the marks of progressive age ex-pressed linearly. A number of these vulva marksappear in situ or 'in context' as Bahn would require(Bahn 1986,101) on anthropomorphous figures withfemale secondary sexual characteristics. See the stra-tegically placed vulva mark superimposed on a peb-ble with female hip/buttock lines (Fig. 2:2-4). Inother cases, the parallel lines of the mature womenmay be incised on pebbles of the almond shape whichbear anthropomorphous characteristics (Garfinkel1992a, pi. 124:8). We suggest that the almond shape,like the V or triangle, is the 'Schematization whichinvolves reducing a figure to its essential traits . . .abbreviated . . . Palaeolithic shorthand in which apart stands for the whole (Bahn & Vertut 1988,117).

In the same way as Bahn applies this theory tolarge hunted animals such as horse, bison or mam-moth and allows identification by a single trait, wesimilarly suggest that the almond or triangle areschematized shorthand and they indicate too thetrait essential for their function in the framework ofthe imagery set in which they appear. This, in boththe Neolithic and Palaeolithic is, we suggest con-cerned with the regulation of access to women. Toput it crudely, the shorthand vulva, stands for thepoint of access and as such is an 'essential trait'indicating that structure. Some of these artefacts bearred stains, and it does not require too great a leap ofthe imagination to understand these as menstruat-ing or bleeding vulvae, a state which has quite clearhistorical and ethnographic bearing on rules regu-lating access to women. The potency of menstrualblood can be considered dangerous in some societies(Buckley & Gottlieb 1988) and so a method of givingnotice of its arrival may need to exist. The vulvashorthand would announce the presence of men-struation in a society where taboos might have ex-isted for menstruation, and for the timing ofconception. They would also indicate that a womanwas still of menstrual age. The red colour on somany of the published Yarmukian 'vulvae pebbles'(Stekelis 1972) (including those of the 'young woman'type) may indicate that such information deviceshave been at work.

For a preliterate society such as the Yarmukian,

the use of linear marks, too, is an apt shorthand toexpress transformations of age. Taking an analogyfrom ethnography, changes in status and transfor-mations in the lives of women are sometimes markedby linear body markings, as for example amongstthe Nuba of Sudan (Faris 1983).

When all is said and done, however, the identi-fication rests too on a visual similarity, an interpre-tation which Bednarik suggests Sigmund Freudwould have been interested in (Bednarik 1994, 1).We agree with this to an extent and feel that some ofour responses lie in regions which belong in otherdisciplines, outside the range of this article. Disa-greements between observers can be reduced to thedegree of confidence which they assign to the dic-tates of their subconscious in which shapes and as-sociations have long been embodied. Some will jointhe sceptics and critics poking fun at others who areprepared to bridge the divide, but can call on nohard evidence to support it. This would apply, forexample, to the identification of what Bahn describesas 'the extremely interesting engraved pebbles' fromthe cave of Kamikuoiwa. Some might easily identifythese as women — with breasts and a suspicion of a'definite' vulva in situ on one of them; others likeBahn might see only 'little pebbles with engravingson them, some of which seem to represent breastsand "skirts'" (Bahn & Vertut 1988,28).

When, however, such identifications are seenas part of an imagery set which fits a model of socialco-operation involving the mutual needs of men'saccess to women with women's need for provisioningassistance (Knight et ah 1995) for herself and heroffspring their identification is greatly supported.

Group IIIThe assemblage of phalli of Group III show no clearpattern of variation. In contrast to women, after ini-tiation, age is less critical to the reproductive func-tion of men. The male contribution to reproductiondoes not leave marks. The appearance of this groupmay belong rather to rituals connected with initia-tion, perhaps a form of penile treatment such assubincision (Lewis 1980; Knight 1987).

Group IVThe Group IV spherical incised items bear motifswhich appear to be combinations of symbols. Verti-cal or converging 'groin' lines indicating female aretraversed by the single horizontal line symbolizingmale (Fig. 5:2). Weinstein-Evron & Belfer-Cohen(1993,102) suggested seeing the horizontal markingmore as a female (waist?) symbol, but we agree with

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A vi Gopher & Estelle Or relle

1cm.

Figure 13. Group V clay figurinm from Sha'ar Hagokn. (After Stekelis 1972.)

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Garrod & Bate (1937, 41) that it represents the fore-skin and indicates male. The juxtaposition of bothsymbols can be interpreted as either a dynamic eventof initiation or coitus.

Group VThe Group V clay figurines, when examined closely,reveal that they are in fact composites of differentrepresentations of male and female genitals. Some ofthese items appear as whole figures, some as headsand some as fragments of the body only. The 'mask'can be seen to portray a fairly obvious representa-tion of male and female genitalia — the so-calledpointed 'hairstyle' or 'hood' being rather phallic innature, the 'cheeks' resemble testicles, and the socalled 'coffee bean eyes' and pouting lips resemblingvulvae. Garfinkel follows Clarke, Mellaart and oth-ers (Garfinkel 1995, 32) in describing these append-ages as 'cowrie-shaped eyes' which, in view of thesymbolic associations of cowrie shells, supports avulva symbolism. A technique of body self-mimicryseems to be used here where lips mimic labia, andthe nose may too represent a phallic element. Thethree sections of the back of the 'phallic' head mimicthe underside of the penile shaft (the 'prepuce' as inWeinstein-Evron & Belfer-Cohen 1993, fig. 3:2), andthis feature appears too in the stylized/schematicphalli (Group III). The legs resemble portrayals ofphalli and the incisions are indicative of foreskinfolds and not obesity.

Another group of objects found in Sha'arHagolan (Stekelis 1972) and in Byblos on the Leba-nese coast (Dunand 1973), are a simpler combinationof male and female genitals (Stekelis 1972, pi. 50:1,pi. 51:1,3; Figs. 7:3 & 13:1). The juxtaposition of op-posing or complementary themes in the same visualimage is an old Palaeolithic technique, and theseandrogynous, 'trickster' figures could represent con-tradictory or negative behaviour, or by signalling'wrong sex' signify illicit or non-available maritalsex (Power 1994; Knight 1994). They indicate inten-tionally non-biological gender divisions. We take is-sue here with the need in these early prehistoricperiods 'to determine with confidence whether therecently discovered artistic objects do represent fe-male and male genders' as felt by Weinstein-Evron& Belfer Cohen (1993, 104), and suggest that ethno-graphic research allows for a greater range (e.g. Meigs1990).

Group VIThe images of males depicted in Group VI have thecharacteristic morphology of adolescents. The 'stick-

like' torsos appear to reflect an age of adolescencewhen boys spurt in height and begin to developsecondary sexual characteristics. They could well beat the age of initiation which seems to be accompa-nied in many groups by the kind of physical mani-festations described. Ethnographic reports confirmthat for boys, the date of puberty rites is fixed bysize, stature and the appearance of secondary sexualcharacteristics (Lewis 1980,107).

Seen individually, incised stones as a mediumfor communication of information, genitalia repre-sentation, and clay figurines of steatopygous andseated women are no innovation of the Yarmukian.The combination, however, of all these elements insome half-a-dozen different forms, appearing to-gether repetitively as an assemblage, characteristicof a particular culture restricted both in area andtime, indicates that something very specific was tak-ing place in this society.

Suggested contexts for the objectsAssuming that the incised stone objects in our studywere part of an encoded system connected to therecording of female reproduction, we must ask inwhat context such objects operated — where woulda record of reproductive status be displayed or ex-ploited? Presumably, events in the reproductive his-tory of women were also marked by public eventssuch as initiations or ceremonies (after births, etc.)Portable items in the form of small imagery itemsappear frequently in the context of rites de passage ofindividuals linked to the biological framework ofhuman life cycles; ethnographic examples for dis-play of figurines include display on a wall (Adams1983) or in a hairdress (Olbrecht 1959, in Adams1983).

The Yarmukian incised pebbles may have beenused similarly or they may have featured in a house-hold or kin context as an 'exhibition' of potentialavailability of females arranged by status visible toall, or to a selected few who might need this infor-mation for decision-making.

Yarmukian imagery items were found in allkinds of household contexts in Yarmukian sites — ageneral domus context, but no sufficiently detailedintra-site contexts. For example, in the two sites onwhich our study was based, Munhata and Sha'arHagolan, no clear micro-contextual patterns werediscerned. In Munhata, where only scant Yarmukianarchitectural features were exposed, the imageryitems were found in a variety of contexts (many ofthem secondary such as trash pits, fills, etc.)

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(Garfinkel 1993). At Sha'ar Hagolan, most of the im-agery items were collected from the surface and onlyvery few were found in the early (Stekelis 1972) orrenewed (Garfinkel 1992a, 157) excavation. In theearlier excavation, architecture was almost non-ex-istent and in the more recent excavations only asingle incised pebble was recovered (Garfinkel pers.comm). In the recently excavated site of Nahal ZehoraII (Gopher & Orrelle 1991), Yarmukian imagery itemswere found in a variety of contexts sometimes re-lated to architectural features and sometimes not.4

The main conclusions from this evidence appear tobe negative — as yet no clear association of imageryitems with specific archaeological contexts (burial,caches, storage installation or repetitive specific housecontext) was found. This discard practice of figu-rines suggests, as in Meskell (1995, 82; and see alsoTalalay 1987) that the imagery had a finite socialrather than sacred function. It may have, however, acertain value for inter-site analysis since to date theyare found in their greatest concentrations in a spe-cific limited area of the Yarmukian territory (theYarmuk-Jordan confluence). This distribution couldsupport a hypothesis of aggregation contexts, andthese might have included activities connected withmating networks within the Yarmukian community.Additional possible concentrations of similar arte-facts do exist further away, for example in Byblos onthe Lebanese coast (Dunand 1973) in a cultural vari-ant similar to the Yarmukian. If these artefacts relateto mating activities, their range may have been quiteextensive. The picture, however, may change withthe exposure of more data on the Yarmukian.

Interpretations offered in the past for theYarmukian imagery system discussed in this articlerefer to sympathetic magic, religion, deities and oth-ers. We suggest rather that several elements were atwork here. Firstly, the internal code in these 'busi-nesslike' notations on pebbles may hint at the work-ings of a reproductive strategy mechanism. As above,we suggest that it was concerned with recording theresource of female reproduction. The main theme ofearly interpretations of the 'fertility figures' is thatthey played some role in 'fertility', that there was a'concern for human fertility', or mat fertility neededsome kind of sympathetic magic to promote it. Wewould say that the problem might well not havebeen the function of fertility, but rather a need tochange attitudes towards childbearing, and encour-age reproduction instead of restricting births.5 Thiswas probably part of a restructuring in society thatwas expressed in other components too. Such is thecase of the appearance of a new burial form, that of

baby jar burials which continue to appear in thecontext of the dwelling house, hinting at a change inthe place of children (including fetuses) in society(Gopher & Orrelle 1995b; Gopher 1996; Gopher 1995).The promotion of reproduction may have resultedin the elevation of motherhood to a more desirable(sacred?) state, and at the same time its placementunder some kind of control (through rituals, mar-riage, or honour codes for example).

It may be that these Yarmukian pebble figu-rines indicate the 'fertility' was being harnessed forsocial objectives, and that this group of material im-agery items may have been used in effecting changesin control over the reproductive capacity of women,virtually, the domestication of female reproduction(Hodder 1987, 55; 1990).6 A record of the femalereproductive stages of the family/community whichproduced them may be related to the exchange ofwomen for social-political reasons such as the for-mation of alliances, or the resolution of feuds — apractice which is known from modern ethnographicexamples (e.g. Tapper 1991,74-9; Talalay 19877). Theincised stone articles may represent tokens for thepresent or future exchange of females, each tokenbearing its 'value' in the form of a reproductive recordof the resource — woman.

The clay figurine groups of the Yarmukian playa different role but in the same system and may havehad significance in the contention for ritual potencybetween men and women which accompanied thenew demographic demands of the changed economy.

The status of women, female figurines and theYarmukian culture

The Yarmukian culture is thought to represent astage of settled agriculture with animal exploitationthat may in some regions have resembled a form ofpastoralism (e.g. Rollefson & Kohler-Rollefson 1989;Simmons et al. 1988 and for general summaries seeGarfinkel 1993; Gopher 1995; Gopher & Gophna 1993).

The direct evidence for the Yarmukian economyis scarce, comprising faunal and very few botanicalfinds. It does not present any major innovation. Inthe fauna the predominance of domesticated sheep/goat continues, accompanied by pigs and cattle(Simmons el al. 1988; Kohler-Rollefson et al 1988;Kohler-Rollefson 1989) and agricultural products in-clude cereals and pulses. Indirectly, however, theYarmukian settlement system and site characteris-tics favour an interpretation of a changing economy(Gopher & Gophna 1993 and references therein).

Animal management and agriculture are labour

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intensive, and one can assume that reproductionwould acquire importance. For agriculturalists, own-ership of land would require the formation of rulesfor devolution. For pastoralists, the formation of alli-ances would be vital for access to resources such asgrazing land and water. Young men seeking wivesand land may no longer be able to do so throughtheir own efforts, as in a bride service society, but beforced to bind themselves to older men on whomthey would depend for bride wealth to acquire therights to a woman's labour, sexuality or offspring.The young man's quest for access to females may befurther frustrated by the practice of polygyny, whereolder men had greater access to females, and thiswould be a source of endemic conflict between agegroups. In their study of gender as a cultural system,Collier & Rosaldo (1981) show how different kindsof simple societies maintain different methods oforganizing marriage alliances. Hunters seem to or-ganize marriage in a manner consistent with theexpectations of bride service; bride wealth by con-trast seems to characterize most horticultural (agri-cultural) groups. 'Bridewealth peoples, for instance,tend in their rituals and cosmology to display a pre-occupation with female reproductive capacities;women are valued as mothers, but feared for theirpolluting blood' (Collier & Rosaldo 1981,279). Sincethese elements appear to be present in their sym-bolic assemblages, the social change taking place inthe Yarmukian may well be a change in the form ofmarriage alliance from bride service to equal bridewealth (Collier 1988).

The scant evidence on the Yarmukian economywould imply various economic activities involvinglong absences by men (and non-reproductive women)such as herding and maybe hunting too. This wouldrequire the introduction of social devices to controltheir resource — reproductive women. A model forhusband absence/socio-political status was sug-gested for the PPNB (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen1989a). However, it was specific to a system in whichhunting played a major economic role. In the rein-stated agricultural economy of the Yarmukian, ac-cess to a woman must have become difficult. A manacquired status through having a wife and her re-productive stages may have been delineated andcontrolled by her family, kin group or society. Asshe moved from stage to stage, and was transformedfrom girl to woman, society used traditional meansto record the events. It is perhaps as an 'inventory oftransformations' that the function of the Group I andII 'women' and 'vulva' pebbles can be regarded.Such overt display of productive female potential

may indicate an increased value of women as repro-ducers, and, on the other hand may also indicate apossible reduction in their access to productive re-sources (Sanday 1973). This may be evidence of ashift in emphasis in women's role from productionto reproduction, a strategy adopted by society ac-cording to changed needs especially in a period ofsocio-economic change (Denham, in Sanday 1973).

Rollefson & Kohler-Rollefson (1989,80) saw therich visual imagery and evidence of ritual behaviourfrom the PPNB at Ain Ghazal as a reflection of peri-odic reaffirmation of social identity and security,part of a generalized pattern of responses to com-mon stresses and opportunities. Such a 'reaffirma-tion' of social identity may have taken place too inthe Yarmukian, when new strategies required newsocial organizations to be implemented. The stressesto which this hypothesis would apply in our casewould be the need for re-establishment of social co-hesion after the breakdown of the Pre-PotteryNeolithic interaction system.

A certain cyclical pattern may be discerned fol-lowing the collapse of what Rollefson called the'faulty experimentation' of the PPNB at the end ofthe seventh millennium BC.8 It appears to be fol-lowed by a period of cultural diversification and ofnew economic adaptations in the early sixth millen-nium DC The following Yarmukian, appearingaround the mid-sixth millennium BC, may perhapsbe seen as a readjustment and recovery. This couldbe supported by the plethora of imagery items whoseappearance in large quantities at different periodscharacterizes a time of social change. Change invites'loud' ritual which must convince and persuade(Knight 1994; Sperber 1974; Peltenburg 1994) andalso intensifies ritual that defends and preserves thestatus quo. It was suggested that such a concentrationappearing in the Natufian signalled social change(Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989b).

The phalli group which appears alongside thefemale genital imagery and the clay androgynousimages raises the suggestion that a form of bloodritual for men was being practised. This has signifi-cance for tracing a possible breakdown of traditionalfemale blood ritual where female rites may have be-gun to be used ritually by men (Sanday 1981; Knight1987; 1991). Conflicts of this nature could be behindthe variety of imagery types in the Yarmukian culture.

One must be wary of interpreting gendersignifiers as the ascendancy of one sex over the other,and remember that these representations can operateon several cognitive levels (Hodder 1987). While thestone items seem to be concerned with biological

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gender categories, the clay items, made of soft pli-able changeable material, seem to be concerned notwith reproduction but with an intentional mixing ofgender signifiers. This could indicate an aspect of aritual system which includes an element of non-avail-able sexuality—genitalia are presented in hermaph-rodite images, all different, quite opposed to therigid separate categories of the stone items. Perhapsthey personify a mythological trickster figure whosecontrariness belongs to the 'carnival' sexual context(e.g. the androgynous ancestral being 'Afek', in Poole1981). The ritual phalli represent yet another sexualpolitical challenge to the old order.

In sum, the imagery suggests that in this soci-ety several facets of sexuality were operating along-side each other—the encouragement of procreation,an increasing male appropriation of female rituals,and symbols of non-reproductive sexuality.

Recent work has recognized the existence ofmultiple gender models and discourses and howthey can intersect in any given context (Sanday &Goodenough 1990). Such an intersection or debateseems to take place in the Yarmukian populationwhere several facets are represented in the imagery.

Gender and sex, however, stand in a relation-ship with other discourses in many domains of cul-ture. They must be integrated into the wider culturalsystem and specific temporal context of the dynam-ics of power, potency, cosmology, and death whichare also highly gendered.

We have no micro-contexts to assist our inter-pretation of the artefacts, but perhaps it is the macrocontext, the historical setting of the Yarmukian cul-ture and the socio-economic changes taking place, inwhich we can find an explanation for these images.

Avi Gopher & Estelle OrrelleInstitute of Archaeology

Tel Aviv UniversityP.O. Box 69978

Ramat AvivTel Aviv

Israel

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Jean Perrot for giving us the Munhatastone collection to study, to Nurit Bird-David andSteve Rosen who read an earlier version; for helpfuldiscussions with Chris Knight, Camilla Power, LionelSims, Catherine Arthur and the late Marija Gimbutas;and to Anna Belfer-Cohen for valuable suggestionson the final draft.

Notes

1. The term material imagery is used to avoid theassumption that these items are mere represen-tational art.

2. We should like to clarify a problem in classifica-tion encountered with the vulvae Group II TypeA — pebbles bearing a single slit, or groove. Aclear division can be traced in the literature be-tween instances where they are described as rep-resentations of female genitals, and where theyare described as sharpeners. In our typologicalassignment of grooved stones, we made a dis-tinction between those in which the groove ex-tended to both extremities of the stone (assignedto sharpeners) and those where the groove onlyextended over part of the length Of the pebble(vulvae). We do not, however, reject the possibil-ity that some of these stones could have fulfilledboth functions, that of 'promissory' token (seeabove) and an actual tool for sharpening, orstraightening. Interestingly, this may be relatedto the survival of the word 'whetstone' in theEnglish language, defined in the Collins diction-ary as Whet (hwet, wet) to sharpen by rubbingagainst a whetstone — to stimulate, arouse, towhet ones appetite. A number of synonyms forfemale genitals reflect the connection with ar-rows or sharpening such as quiver, sharp-andblunt, grindstone and whetting-corn(e), and thesynonym 'amulet' may be a hint of how theseitems were displayed (Ash & Higton 1987).

3. The near absence of sexual characteristics, ofbreasts or genitalia 'in context' on the portrayalsof the 'older women' in the stone pebble itemssuggest that they too were in ritual state.

4. Micro-contexts for figurines from Nahal ZehoraII. This is a new Yarmukian excavation carriedout with up-to-date control methods and fullsieving. It has produced a large assemblage ofimagery items which are in the process of beingstudied. As far as can be ascertained to date, nospecific spatial or discard patterning could beidentified, but it is too early to make a definitivestatement.

5. This process may also have occurred in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (8000-5600 DC) in lightof the economic change and may have contrib-uted to the over-success and the collapse of thePre-Pottery Neolithic socio-economic system. If,however, as we suggest, the second half of thesixth millennium BC shows a reorganization ofsociety, then an encouragement of reproduction

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would be a relevant part of that process.6. As the imagery of domestication incorporates

domesticated animals in the place of wild huntedanimals, so the imagery of powerful female ritu-als connected with hunting undergoes transfor-mation in the process of its domestication.

7. A number of clay figurine legs resembling thosefound from Neolithic Greece described in thisarticle were found very recently in the excava-tion of Nahal Zehora II in conjunction with theartefacts described in this article. They are as yetunpublished, but they are to be included in asimilar study of material from south Levantinesites.

8. Evidence of pastoralism was suggested for thePPNC period by Rollefson et al. 1992 andRollefson & Kohler-Rollefson 1989.

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