The Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art: Cases from Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan Phillip C. Edwards, Janine Major, Kenneth J. McNamara & Rosie Robertson The likelihood that Palaeolithic artisans sometimes used natural objects as models for their image-making has long been suggested, yet well-contextualized and stratified examples have remained rare. This study examines a series of natural and fabricated items from the Natufian settlement of Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan (12,000–12,500 cal. BC)to propose that the site occupants collected a variety of found objects such as fossils, unusually shaped stones and animal bones, which they utilized as templates in the production of geometric art pieces. Natural and fabricated objects were woven into complex schemes of relation by Natufian artisans. Existing patterns were copied and applied to a variety of representational images. Found objects were sometimes subtly modified, whereas at other times they were transformed into finished artefacts. The scute pattern on the tortoise carapace, in particular, appears to have formed the basis of important ritual beliefs across the Natufian culture area. At Wadi Hammeh 27, it was evoked in various media and at various scales to form interrelating tableaux of representation. Introduction The practice of collecting or lightly modifying natural forms reflects a widespread phenomenon that Inhabitants of the Early Natufian site of Wadi Marshack (1997a) believed is ubiquitous in our spe- Hammeh27inJordan(12,000–12,500 cal. BC) collected cies. Indeed, the ability to recognize animate forms interesting curios such as fossils, semi-precious stones, in inanimate objects may be an integral part of the tortoise shells and oddly shaped pieces of rock human condition (Marshack 1997a; Onians 2007). (Edwards et al. 2013a). Here we provide contextual evi- Evidence for this capability appears widely in time dence to suggest that patterns on a variety of these and space; for example, the subtle modifications objects were used by artisans at the site as geometric made to European cave walls and stalagmites in motifs which were applied to portable artworks. The the Upper Palaeolithic to enhance their representa- idea that interesting natural designs may have tional value (Bahn & Vertut 1997, 105–6) and the prompted ancient artisans to reproduce or abstract embellishment of elongated stone objects to elaborate them has been recognized for centuries (Hodgson & their phallic form by Indigenous Australians Pettitt 2018, 597). Yet it is less common to find exam- (McCarthy 1976, 70; Mountford 1939; 1960). ples of art objects and similar natural prototypes in The earliest example of this type from the contemporaneous and secure archaeological contexts, Levant is the Acheulian ‘figurine’ (c. 230,000 years located close to each other. This article presents three ago) from Berekhat Ram on the Golan Heights plausible cases from Wadi Hammeh 27. (d’Errico & Nowell 2000). Unmodified, coloured peb- Like other peoples, Natufian-period artisans bles were also collected at Qesem Cave during the were drawn to a variety of interesting natural objects. late Lower Palaeolithic period (c. 420,000–200,000 Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29:4, 607–624 © 2019 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research doi:10.1017/S0959774319000234 Received 20 Dec 2018; Accepted 28 Mar 2019; Revised 5 Mar 2019 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 27 Sep 2021 at 06:18:50, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774319000234 Phillip C. Edwards et al. approaches to the study of geometric art in the late Pleistocene. The Natufian culture and the site of Wadi Hammeh 27 The Natufian period (13,000–10,300 cal. BC) in the Levant is considered a crucial juncture in human settlement history because it marks the transition between the mobile hunter-gatherers of earlier Epipalaeolithic phases (20,000–13,000 cal. BC) and the sedentary, agrarian villagers of the Early Neolithic (10,300–8300 cal. BC: Bar-Yosef & Valla fi Figure 1. Exfoliating cobble (RN 80153), Phase 3, Wadi 2011; Grosman & Munro 2017). The Natu an settle- Hammeh 27. ment system has been claimed as an example of inter-annual, pre-agricultural sedentism, and while this level of settlement permanence has yet to be years ago: Assaf 2018). Much later, a Geometric demonstrated, there is broad consensus that the Kebaran chert nodule from Wadi Mataha (c. 16– large, open-air Early Natufian sites, termed ‘base- 17,000 years ago) was smoothed and incised to camps’ (Bar-Yosef & Goren 1973), represent a more enhance its anatomical likeness to a seated human intensive residential system than had previously figure (Gregg et al. 2011, fig. 3; Stock et al. 2005). existed in the Mediterranean zone of the southern Perhaps the most striking example of the Natufian Levant (Boyd 2006; Byrd 1989; Edwards 1989). interest in found objects is another anthropomorphic However, it is not clear as to whether fully inter- cobble from Wadi Mataha, minimally shaped to annual, year-on-year sedentism is demonstrated, emphasize its likeness to a seated human figure rather than intensified occupations per se (Valla (Gregg 2002, fig. 35). 2018). Natufian artisans from Wadi Hammeh 27 also Natufian base-camps are important novelties in took inspiration from natural forms, such as the the archaeological record and represent the founda- exfoliating cobble RN (Registered Number) 80153 tions of the Neolithic village in the Middle East. They (Fig. 1), which suggests an animal’s head with a include the first agglomerations of round and oval large eye. This example is echoed by a zoomorphic huts, constructions which were rebuilt over many gen- flint nodule from the site of El Wad with a strategic- erations, with occupation persisting for hundreds or ally placed ‘eye’ (Weinstein-Evron 1998, 104). even thousands of years. The earliest of the large base- Moreover, elongated flint nodules from El Wad camp settlements in the Mediterranean zone of the were transformed into phallic representations by southern Levant were located in caves or rock-shelters, the strategic addition of grooves representing the such as at El Wad at Mount Carmel, founded around prepuce and urethral opening. The shape of a pestle 13,000 cal. BC (Caracuta et al. 2016; Eckmeier et al. also naturally suggests a phallic form, and this was 2012; Garrod & Bate 1937). Despite the provision of a sometimes accentuated by the application of ‘ureth- natural shelter, the Natufian occupation at El Wad, ral’ and radial grooves added to the end, as in exam- as at several other Natufian cave sites, was equipped ples from El Wad (Weinstein-Evron 1998,96–7) and with a variety of stone features such as hearths, post- Hayonim Cave (Belfer-Cohen 1991, 575). A phalli- holes and pavements. Around 12,500 cal. BC, base- form representation at Wadi Hammeh 27 (RN camp sites were founded in open-air locations, in the 80024) was effected on the longest pestle found at Jordan Valley at Wadi Hammeh 27 (Edwards et al. the site (Edwards 2013a, 316), and also more natural- 2013b) and in the Galilee region shortly afterwards at istically on the smaller pestle, RN 140053 (Edwards ‘Ain Mallaha (Valla et al. 2007, 146). At around the et al. 2018; Robertson 2016). same time, it is now apparent that a settlement of This examination is directed at the more preme- similar complexity had emerged at Shubayqa 1 in ditated and calculated use of natural objects as tem- northeast Jordan (Richter et al. 2017). These open-air plates for geometric motifs applied to portable settlements remained unconstrained by the limits of artworks. Before proceeding to examine the cases, natural shelters and grew to larger sizes up to 0.5 we first review the Natufian period of the Levant, ha in area, with cultural deposits accumulating up Wadi Hammeh 27 and its art, and then review to several metres in thickness. Wadi Hammeh 27 608 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 27 Sep 2021 at 06:18:50, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774319000234 Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art (Edwards 2013b;Edwardset al. 2013b) is the earliest incised ochre fragment from Blombos Cave, South and only the third major, open-air Early Natufian base- Africa (Henshilwood et al. 2009). The Blombos Cave camp excavated extensively in the Mediterranean example dates between 75,000 and 100,000 years region of the southern Levant over the past 70 years ago and is considered to have been made by early (after Mallaha and Jericho). The site yielded four modern humans. An even earlier example (540,000– major occupational phases, comprising three sets of 450,000 years ago) is an incised freshwater mussel superimposed housing structures (Phases 1–3) overly- from Trinil, Indonesia, with a zigzag motif, probably ing a phase with burials dug into bedrock (Phase 4). produced by a Homo erectus individual (Joordens The uppermost occupation (Phase 1) contains one of et al. 2015). To what extent geometric motifs were dis- the largest, most complex pre-Neolithic buildings yet covered in the natural world, experienced under the discovered in the Middle East (Structure 2). The site influence of plant derivatives with hallucinogenic is well preserved, yielding dozens of artefact caches properties, or conceived internally through neuro- and activity areas. Material culture includes many physiological processes has remained a matter for artefact types in flint (Edwards 2013c), limestone conjecture. Internally generated sources include (Edwards 2013d), basalt (Edwards & Webb 2013) innate ‘phosphene forms’, or natural images which and animal bone (Edwards & Le Dosseur 2013); are seen behind the eyelids (Bahn 2016, 288). It has ochre and shell fragments (Edwards et al.