Archaeology breakthrough as world’s oldest human sculpture discovered after 12,000 years | History | News
Archaeologists have unearthed a small 12,000-year-old clay figure of a woman carrying a goose on her back, believed to be the world’s oldest sculpture depicting a human interacting with an animal. The miniature artwork, measuring less than 5cm tall, was discovered at a prehistoric Natufian settlement overlooking the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
The statue shows a crouching woman who appears to be supporting a live goose rather than a hunted bird, suggesting a symbolic rather than a practical scene. Natufians, who lived as humans began to transition from nomadic foraging to the first settled societies, viewed geese as both a vital resource and a spiritual symbol. They provided flesh, feathers and bones for tools and decorative ornaments, and are thought to represent a close bond between humans and the natural world.
“The figurine reflects a transformative moment,” said Professor Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “It bridges the world of mobile hunter-gatherers with the world of early settled societies and shows how imagination and symbolic thought began to shape human culture.”
The figurine was unearthed in a semicircular stone structure used for funerary rites and ceremonial activities at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II, a large village inhabited for several centuries. The remains of a goose were also found in the same place.
Microscopic and chemical tests revealed traces of red ocher on both the woman and the goose, as well as a preserved fingerprint believed to belong to the artist. The clay was deliberately fired at approximately 400°C; making it one of the earliest known examples of intentional clay firing for art or technology.
Dating roughly to 10,000 BCE, the statue represents the dawn of storytelling, symbolic expression and myth-making, long before the rise of agriculture or organized religion, researchers say.
“This discovery is extraordinary,” said lead author Dr Laurent Davin. “Not only is this the oldest figurine depicting human-animal interaction, it is also the oldest natural depiction of a woman found in southwest Asia.”
Previous finds in the same area included pebble carvings of human faces reported in 2017.
This incredible discovery turns out to be a gold pocket watch that once belonged to one of the Titanic’s richest passengers. It is expected to sell for over £1 million113 years after the ship sank. The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch belonged to Isidor Straus, co-owner of New York’s world-famous Macy’s department store. He died together with his wife Ida in April 1912.
