A collection of clay ornaments, deemed to be the earliest known ones found in Southwest Asia, was discovered by a team of archaeologists led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and reveal how humans began expressing identity and meaning through material culture.
The complete findings were published earlier this week in the journal Science Advances.
“This discovery completely changes how we understand the relationship between clay, symbolism, and the emergence of settled life,” said Laurent Davin, team lead and postdoctoral researcher at Hebrew University.
A total of 142 15,000-year-old beads and pendants were found at four Natufian sites across northern Israel: el-Wad and Nahal Oren on Mount Carmel, Hayonim Cave in the Upper Galilee, and Eynan-Mallaha in the Hula Valley.
The Natufians were hunter-gatherers, and some of the first to settle permanently in one place before the introduction of agriculture.
Until now, however, clay was not believed to hold much cultural significance to the Natufians, and only five clay beads from the time period had previously been found worldwide.
Most of the beads were coated in red ochre, using a pottery technique known as engobe, where a thin layer of clay mixed with water is brushed over the surface of the pottery. This find marks the earliest known use of engobe in the world.
Researchers identified 19 different types of beads, whose shapes are reminiscent of plants that were harvested by Natufians, and were vital to their lives, such as wild barley, lentils, and peas.
Traces of plant fibers were also found preserved in some of the beads.
Some 50 fingerprints found on the surface of the beads
However, the most impressive discovery is not of the beads themselves, but of the fingerprints left behind on their surfaces.
A total of 50 fingerprints belonging to children, adolescents, and adults were identified by researchers, allowing for the first time the direct identification of the beads’ Paleolithic makers, as well as the largest collection of fingerprints found and documented from the era.
Some objects also appear to have been designed specifically for children, including a tiny clay ring measuring at about 10 millimeters wide.
The findings show the earliest use of clay as a way to symbolize a cultural and social connection, beginning not during the rise of agriculture, but still during the time of hunting and gathering.
With this discovery, the Natufians are reframed from not only being the "forerunners of agriculture, but as innovators of symbolic culture, people who used clay to say something about who they were, and who they were becoming,” the university shared in a statement.
“These objects show that profound social and cognitive changes were already underway,” said Hebrew University Professor Leore Grosman. “The roots of the Neolithic lie deeper than we once thought.”