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A New Look at the Berekhat Ram Figurine: Implications for the Origins of Symbolism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2001

Francesco d'Errico
Affiliation:
Institut de Préhistoire et Géologie du Quaternaire, UMR 5808 du CNRS, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, Francef.derrico@iquat.u-bordeaux.fr
April Nowell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 33rd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398, USAanowell@uvic.ca

Abstract

This article addresses the nature of the evidence for symbolling behaviour among hominids living in the Near East during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Traditionally, Palaeolithic art and symbolling have been synonymous with the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe. The Berekhat Ram figurine, a piece of volcanic material from a Lower Palaeolithic site in Israel, described as purposely modified to produce human features, challenges the view of a late emergence of symbolic behaviour. The anthropogenic nature of these modifications, however, is controversial. We address this problem through an examination of volcanic material from the Berekhat Ram site and from other sources, and by experimentally reproducing the modifications observed on the figurine. We also analyze this material and the figurine itself through optical and SEM microscopy. Our conclusion is that this object was purposely modified by hominids.

With comments from Ofer Bar-Yosef, Angela E. Close, João Zilhão, Steven Mithen, Thomas Wynn, and Alexander Marshack followed by a reply from the authors.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2000 The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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