Archaic conceptions about procreation: a reinterpretation of the Chalcolithic figurines from Gilat

ABSTRACT

The symbolism of the two complementary figurines found at the Chalcolithic site of Gilat – a woman with a churn and a ram with cornets – is reconsidered. The paper argues that male sexual symbolism of the ram, the seminal associations of the cornets, and their position on the animal’s back suggest that the ram figurine expresses the belief that semen, the vital element of paternal issue, originates in the spinal cord. With her emphasized genitals and the uterine symbolism of the churn, the woman figurine evokes the transformation of the semen into bones in the womb. Analysis of the red painting used in the figurines suggests that heat was considered the physical factor behind the production of semen and its ensuing transformation into bones. The analysis also underscores the importance of blood, the maternally transmitted vital fluid, for the formation of flesh in the embryo. These findings, echoed in other ancient cultures, attest to the earliest integrated representation of the phenomenon of procreation discovered so far. This representation, however, is perceptible only after the viewer is made aware of the hidden continuity in the ceramic wall between each figure (ram, woman) and its associated artifact (cornets, churn). It is concluded that, given that this esoteric information focuses on the mysteries of procreation, the two figurines may not necessarily represent deities.

KEYWORDS:

• Ghassulian religion
• Gilatfigurines
• archaic conceptions about procreation
• esoteric knowledge
• sexual symbolism

Acknowledgements

I would like here to warmly thank Professors Isaac Gilead and Ofer Marder for having discussed the contents of this paper, and for their precious advice and recommendations, which helped me to mature some of the concepts exposed here. I also thank Patrick Jean-Baptiste for drawing the map (Figure 1) and for his useful comments, Professor Thomas Levy for authorization of reproduction of Figures 7–10 and Dr Peta Seaton for authorization of reproduction of Figure 5. The two anonymous reviewers are also acknowledged for their comments that helped me to clarify some of the concepts exposed here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Alternative functions of the cornet have been proposed. From the identification of traces of beeswax in some cornets, Namdar et al. (2009, 635) deduce that the Ghassulians may have used the cornet as a mold for the production of beeswax candles. Others suggest that it was involved in the processing of milk (as separator) or used to hold a torch (Seaton 2008, 43). These assumptions, however, hardly justify the presence of cornet in the ram figurine.

2. At Çatal Höyük, authors have identified symbolic representations (seventh millennium BC) of the male and female contribution to kinship and organization of lineages (Forest 1993, 9, 16). Parallels between these symbolic representations with those encountered in many other Neolithic sites from Anatolia, Levant and Mesopotamia (Forest 1993, 37–41; Verhoeven 2002; Hodder 2007, 116) confirm that the question of procreation became of central importance at the Neolithic period.

3. This interpretation finds support in an anatomical singularity of ungulates that is easily observed when the carcasses of large animals are sectioned: the existence of a retractor muscle attaching the penis to the lower vertebrae through a sinew which, here again, looks like a nerve.

4. And exactly as in the Gilat figurines, this red-transformation symbolism was in the Neolithic Levant especially attached to birth/procreation (Petru 2006, 206).

5. The homology between the Ankh, the Egyptians representation of power, strength and vitality, and the lower spinal vertebra of the bull/ram leads Schwabe, Adams, and Hodge (1982) to assume the existence of these beliefs in the pre-Dynastic period. They conclude (457): ‘In pre-dynastic time an ungulate’s thoracic vertebra was recognized by Egyptian priests as the sacred (and secret?) symbol par excellence for the procreating/revivification properties (powers) of the spine and thus for the mysteries of life.’

6. This practice (also attested in Anatolia at the same time: see Hodder 2007, 109) has been traditionally interpreted as evidence towards social differentiation, cult of ancestors and emergence of lineage identity (Kuijt 2002, 158). However, the special treatment given to skull of young individuals (which may hardly be regarded as ancestors) together with evidences towards deformations of plastered skulls rather suggests its close association with concepts of fertility (Verhoeven 2002, 249, 251; 2004, 256–257; Goring-Morris 2002, 114) and therefore, of semen production.

7. The jar-churn symbolism was perpetuated for a long time. Representations in ancient Greece of a satyr inseminating an amphora confirm that pottery receptacles with long collars were identified with the female genital apparatus as a whole (Coccagna 2009, 83–86; Lissarague 2013, 83, Figure 57). A series of Etruscan votive offerings of ceramic receptacles with narrow collars, containing an internal piece of clay invisible from the outside, confirms the womb symbolism (Baggieri 1999, Figures 63–71). The vase-womb homology is even confirmed in Greece by the common designation of the womb and the internal bottom of a jar as puthmên and the common appellation of the collar of a jar and that of the uterus (trachêlos).

8. This prompts Naumov (2007, 257) to conclude: ‘In that context, the hearth and oven had symbolic meaning with the same metaphoric function as those organs of a women’s abdomen which stimulate the conception and development of the embryo.’ The idea that heating pursuant to sexual intercourse has something to do with the production of semen is also encountered later in antiquity (Coles 1995, 52–56) and even in traditional societies (Fortier 2001, 101).

9. The belief in such a reversible flesh–milk transformation is clearly indicated later, in medical papyruses from ancient Egypt: see Bardinet 1995, 145. Even later in Antiquity, embryo formation was still explicitly identified with the process of cheese production from milk. This conception is clearly expressed in the book of Job: ‘Did you not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews’ (Job 10:10–11). A similar process of semen coagulation is asserted by Aristotle (De Generatione animalium, I, 20, 729a) as the earliest stage of embryogenesis: ‘In fact, as in the coagulation of milk, the milk being the material, the fig-juice or rennet is that which contains the curdling principle, so acts the secretion of the male, being divided into parts in the female.’ The same symbolic homology of milk-to-cheese and semen-to-bones transformation is also encountered in traditional cultures from Africa (Gordon and Schwabe 1995, 193; Fortier 2001, 114–115).

10. Kuijt (2002, 140) identified this social function of funerary rituals as follows: ‘Mortuary practices fulfill an important integrative function within communities by encouraging participation in a powerful communal act that symbolically and physically links community members in a logical and articulate form, leads to the development of new networks or the extension of existing networks, and reaffirms broader beliefs and worldviews.’

11. From allusions to the existence of a similar duo at Ghassul, Seaton (2008, 128) even concludes that the Ghassulian religion as expressed in the later Area E Sanctuary centered on a ‘sacred pair’ connoting ideas of security and fertility.

12. Though the Gilat figurines are unique in shape and figuration, they display a common feature with two zoomorphic statuettes identified in contemporaneous Ghassulian sites: the En-Gedi quadruped carrying two churns on its back (Figure 4), and the Ghassul quadruped shaped as a churn (Figure 5). This common singularity suggests a procreation symbolism in both. The Ghassul figurine does not display any male sexual character, so that its whole identification with a churn suggests its homology with the Gilat Woman. In such a case, we expect that the anthropomorphic figurine from the Ghassul Sanctuary (identified only by its hand: see Seaton 2008, 77, 117–119) to be homolog with the Gilat ram. The remains of horns on the head of the En-Gedi figurine suggests that it represents a male animal carrying two churns on its back. Their separation with the animal’s body excludes their representation of its internal organs. It seems rather that the complementary male and female symbolisms are expressed here on a single figurine emphasizing the male contribution to procreation.

13. The centrality of reproduction mysteries in initiation is also observed in traditional societies from Africa, as noticed by Zahan (1979, 56): ‘Initiation constitutes a progressive course of instruction designed to familiarize the person with the significations of his own body and with the meaning he gives to the environment … the instructions given to the candidates at this initiation, as well as the rites which they perform, refers to their accession to the status of completed persons. As such they are ready to fulfill their role in society by marrying and giving birth to other human beings.’

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Nissim Amzallag

Nissim Amzallag (PhD) is research fellow at the department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East at the Ben Gurion University. He works mainly on the cultural dimension of metallurgy in the Southern Levant and its and its cultural influence, from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.