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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Avi Gopher  and
Estelle Orrelle
Avi Gopher
Affiliation:
Institute of ArchaeologyTel Aviv UniversityP.O. Box 69978 Ramat Aviv Tel Aviv Israel
Estelle Orrelle
Affiliation:
Institute of ArchaeologyTel Aviv UniversityP.O. Box 69978 Ramat Aviv Tel Aviv Israel
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Abstract

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.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1996 , pp. 255 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1996

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