The Khirbet Kerak Ware figurine: a new component in the Kura-Araxes cultural assemblage

Abstract

Recent excavations of Khirbet Kerak Ware contexts at the type site of Khirbet el-Kerak/Tel Bet Yerah and re-investigation of earlier finds from this site have permitted the technological and typological identification of a distinct category of zoomorphic figurines, associated exclusively with the characteristic red-black burnished Khirbet Kerak ceramics. Comparative study shows affinity between these figurines and similar objects found in different parts of the Kura-Araxes cultural community, from the Levant to the Iranian plateau. Consisting solely of horned cattle, we suggest that zoomorphic figurines represent a significant aspect of the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition in its expansion along the margins of the West Asian political and economic cores, during the final phase of the ‘secondary products revolution’.

Keywords:

• Zoomorphic figurines
• traction complex
• Khirbet Kerak Ware
• Kura-Araxes
• southern Levant

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Israel Museum and Israel Antiquities Authority curators Alegre Savariego, Galit Litani and Fawzi Ibrahim for their help in accessing and recording the Bet Yerah figurines in their collections. Alon Arad provided details on 2009–2015 excavation contexts, based on the field records of Mark Iserlis and Sarit Paz. Thanks are due to Amnon Ben-Tor, Shlomit Bechar and Debora Sandhaus of the Hazor expedition, and to Yael Rotem and Yorke Rowan of the Tel Yaqush expedition, for permission to publish figurines from their excavations. The Tel Bet Yerah Archaeological Project is sponsored by the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University; our research has also been supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 310/12).

Notes

1 An experimental figurine replication and breakage project is currently underway in association with the annual ‘PrimTech’ course held by UCL Institute of Archaeology, hosted by Butzer Ancient Farm.

2 This feature has been noted in a few unpublished figurines and verified experimentally. It can also be observed in a recent study that used X-ray imaging to investigate manufacturing techniques of 2nd-millennium Cretan figurines (Berg forthcoming: fig. 4: top left and bottom right images).