15,000-Year-Old Clay Figurines Reveal Early Human Artistic Expression and Family Collaboration

Archaeologists have unearthed 154 Natufian clay figurines at sites in the Hula Valley, Western Galilee, and Mount Carmel, dating back 12,000 to 15,000 years. These findings represent the oldest known figurative clay tradition in Southwest Asia, predating existing timelines by up to 3,000 years. The figurines, depicting deer, humans, and birds, provide the first evidence that adults and children jointly created symbolic objects thousands of years before the advent of agriculture.

The discovery challenges the notion that complex symbolic expression emerged only in the late Paleolithic period and is linked to the Neolithic agricultural revolution. It suggests that people of this era were more artistically innovative than previously thought. Long before the first farming villages and pottery, these early humans sculpted clay into miniature figures of birds, animals, and people.

The collection includes 15 complete figurines and 139 fragments. The items were created by the Natufian culture, which inhabited the region approximately 15,000 to 11,650 years ago and was among the first in Southwest Asia to establish permanent or semi-permanent settlements. The research, published in PLOS One, was led by Dr. Laurent Davin, Prof. Lior Grossman, and Prof. Anna Belfer-Cohen from the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.

Microscopic analysis of fingerprints preserved in the clay revealed the participation of both adults and children in shaping and decorating the items. Some fingerprints belong to children under ten years old, offering a rare glimpse into the roles of children and educational processes in prehistoric societies. One figurine shows overlapping fingerprints from an adult woman and a child, indicating the object was passed between them during the creation process, a rare testament to tangible, active learning.

Birds constitute the majority of the identified figurines (11 items), alongside representations of a mammal, a deer, and two human figures. Some bird figurines are schematic, while others show detailed feathers, wings, and tails, including depictions resembling waterbirds and birds of prey. Researchers suggest these figurines were not merely decorative but served as a means to transmit rich environmental knowledge about seasons and nature, and were part of storytelling traditions and community rituals.

Additionally, traces of red paint applied using the engobe technique were found on some figures, marking the world's earliest evidence of this practice. The plasticity of clay allowed for gradual and dynamic building, modification, joining, and decoration, unlike static carving in bone or engraving in stone. These findings demonstrate that hunter-gatherer societies in early permanent villages laid the groundwork for plastic art and symbolic language long before plant domestication and the development of agriculture.