Encoding information: unique Natufian objects from Hayonim Cave, western Galilee, Israel.

Encoding information: unique Natufian objects from Hayonim Cave, western Galilee, Israel. Since the original discoveries of Natufian cultural remains by D.Garrod in Shukbah and El-Wad caves in Mt Carmel and by R. Neuville inthe Judean Desert (Garrod 1957; Neuville 1951), the 'art'objects recovered from those sites have become a focal point focal pointn.See focus. in attemptsto reconstruct aspects of the Natufian spiritual domain. Someresearchers have even considered them as manifestations of a prehistoricreligion in the Near East (e.g. M.-C. Cauvin 1991; J. Cauvin 1997). Inthe 1950s and 1960s, further excavations of Natufian sites, defined onthe basis of their content as base camps or sedentary hamlets,considerably augmented the number of known objects placed in thiscategory of 'artistic' or 'symbolic' manifestations.These sites include Nahal Oren, Ain Mallaha (Eynan), Hayonim Cave andTerrace, Rosh Zin, Wadi Hammeh 27 and the renewed excavation at El-Wad(Bar-Yosef 1983; 1991; 1997; Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989; 1992;Belfer-Cohen 1988; 1991a; 1991b; Edwards 1991; Noy 1991; Valla 1995;Weinstein-Evron & Belfer-Cohen 1993). The Natufian, dated to c. 13,000/12,800 to 10,500/300 BP, is thefirst archaeological culture in the Levant Levant(ləvănt`)[Ital.,=east], collective name for the countries of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean from Egypt to, and including, Turkey. regularly to have producedobjects considered as manifestations of art. The most common elementsare marine shell beads, known since the late Upper Palaeolithic, c.20,000 BP, but the frequency of their occurrence rises sharply duringthe Natufian. In addition, Natufian contexts provide jewellery itemsmade of other raw materials, for example stone and bone beads andpendants, as well as beads made of ostrich ostrich,common name for a large flightless bird (Struthio camelus) of Africa and parts of SW Asia, allied to the rhea, the emu and the extinct moa. It is the largest of living birds; some males reach a height of 8 ft (244 cm) and weigh from 200 to 300 lb egg-shells. However, the moststriking phenomenon related to the Natufian is the appearance, for thefirst time in the region's prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to , of three-dimensionalfigurines or figurative engravings (Garrod & Bate bate?1?tr.v. bat��ed, bat��ing, bates1. To lessen the force or intensity of; moderate: "To his dying day he bated his breath a little when he told the story"1937; Neuville1951; Noy 1991; Weinstein-Evron & Belfer-Cohen 1993). Earlieroccurrences are few and sporadic, for example the Lower Palaeolithicfigurine from Berekhat Ram (Goren-Inbar 1986; Marshack 1997a), theengraved horse from the Aurignacian level of Hayonim Cave (Belfer-Cohen& Bar-Yosef 1981; Marshack 1997b) or the rarely found incised pebbleand bone found in Kebaran contexts (Tixier 1974; Hovers 1990; Marshack1997b). Decorated bone and stone artefacts such as spatulas, bowls, slabsand shaft straighteners are more numerous in Natufian sites (Noy 1991;Bar-Yosef 1997). Most famous are the decorated sickle hafts withthree-dimensional carved animals (Garrod 1957; Belfer-Cohen 1991b andreferences therein). The subjects of the decorations or incised patternsrange from realistic depictions of ungulates ungulates, ungulataanimals with hooves; cattle, sheep, goat, pig, horse and many wild and other domesticated species. (generally interpreted asgazelles) to abstract, repetitive patterns of cross-hatching, netdesigns and regular lines. Recent research has suggested that the distribution of thedecorative motives among the various Natufian sites is not random. The'art' objects and/or 'ornamental' elements fall intoa number of clusters confined to particular sites, and may therefore beconsidered the hallmarks of specific groups (Henry 1989; Noy 1991;Stordeur 1992). This contention is supported by the similar geographicdistribution pattern of bead types among generally contemporary Natufiansites (Belfer-Cohen 1988; 1991a; 1991b). On the basis of theseobservations, it may be that the Natufian sites of Hayonim Cave and ofthe terrace in front of it belonged to a particular social group, whoseterritory comprised the Mount Carmel and Western Galilee Galilee(găl`ĭlē), region, N Israel, roughly the portion north of the plain of Esdraelon. Galilee was the chief scene of the ministry of Jesus. area. Hayonim Cave, which has been excavated since 1965, contains theremains of a series of Natufian occupations with several built-up rooms,graves [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED], rich flint and boneindustries, ground stone utensils, and various 'artistic'manifestations (Bar-Yosef 1991; Belfer-Cohen 1988; 1991a; Marshack1997b). Together with the terrace (Valla et al. 1989), the Hayonim siteis considered to be a Natufian base camp. This report will focus on someof the bone and limestone objects recently discovered at Hayonim Cave,as well as on a single item from the Kebara Cave, which relates directlyto the specimens from Hayonim. These not only add to the existingcollection of recorded Natufian artistic objects, but they also initiatea discussion on the meaning of these items (for an overview of thisissue, see Softer & Conkey 1997). The Natufian deposits at HayonimCave produced a rich assemblage of decorated, often incised, bone andstone artefacts (Bar-Yosef & Tchernov 1970; Belfer-Cohen 1988;Belfer-Cohen 1991a and references therein; Marshack 1997b). One of themost spectacular finds was a spatula spatula/spat��u��la/ (spach��u-lah) [L.]1. a wide, flat, blunt, usually flexible instrument of little thickness, used for spreading material on a smooth surface.2. a spatulate structure. or broken sickle half with adelicately engraved design, described as a crosshatch A criss-crossed pattern used to fill in sections of a drawing to distinguish them from each other. or a net pattern[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. Two additional items, one of whichis a broken sickle half, show a like pattern (Bar-Yosef & Tchernov1970; Belfer-Cohen 1991a). Although the collection of artefacts hasgrown with every season of excavations, a similar object bearing anidentical incised pattern [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED] wasdiscovered only in 1997. The new bone object from Hayonim Cave (cat. no. 1000) wasdiscovered inside Grave XVII, dug into Locus 10, near the cave wall atthe entrance [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. The burials in thisgrave appear to be primary and some include adornments such as Dentaliumbeads and bone pendants. Unfortunately, as the grave was packed withstones on top and between the skeletons, in a manner similar to thegroup burial of H. 23 in El-Wad (Garrod & Bate 1937; Garrod 1937),the bones were severely damaged and disturbed. This jumble of bones andstones precludes identification of the exact original context of thebone object or its possible relationship to any particular skeleton. The net pattern on this broken spatula lies within two parallelcolumns with a clear space in between, nearly identical to the patternobserved on the previously published specimen (Bar-Yosef & Tchernov1970: plate 35). Because it is a shorter fragment, it can only beassumed that, as is the case with the other objects, including the onefrom Kebara described below [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED], thisincised pattern was repeated further down the body of the artefact See artifact. .Despite major excavations at other Natufian sites in Israel and Jordan,the only item which bears the same incised pattern was reported fromTurville-Petre's excavations in layer B at Kebara Cave, which werecompleted in 1931 (Turville-Petre 1932). Campana (Campana 1991:[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]) noted the similarity of the patternon the spatula from Hayonim to that on the object from Kebara, andinterpreted it as a basketry basketry,art of weaving or coiling and sewing flexible materials to form vessels or other commodities. The materials used include twigs, roots, strips of hide, splints, osier willows, bamboo splits, cane or rattan, raffia, grasses, straw, and crepe paper. motif. In addition, he repudiatedHenry's assertion (Henry 1989) that the presence of the same motifon bone objects, presumed to have been fabricated by women, in two sitessituated about 50 km apart, constitutes supportive evidence for Natufianmatrilocality mat��ri��lo��cal?adj. AnthropologyOf or relating to residence with a wife's kin group or clan.mat . Another object, recovered by M. Stekelis while sieving the dumpsfrom Turville-Petre's excavations in the early 1950s [ILLUSTRATIONFOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED] may be added to Campana's Kebara specimen(Campana 1991). It is worth mentioning that Stekelis had no difficultyin identifying the backdirt sediments of layer B due to their reddishcolour, which clearly differentiated them from the yellowish and greyishdeposits of earlier layers in this cave (for details Bar-Yosef et al.1992). Unfortunately, the object from Kebara is also incomplete andburnt, although it seems to be of the same overall size as the twoobjects from Hayonim Cave. The left side of the item is complete and thetop pattern is shown to consist of 20 incised lines. Though the patternrepeats itself below, it is impossible to guess its length since it isbroken off on both sides. It is of interest to note that on the twoHayonim specimens, the top pattern is longer and comprises 23 and 26lines. Interpretations of the decorative incised net patterns range froman imitation of a basketry pattern (Campana 1991) to an abstractgeometric pattern. Indeed, these markings, most of which are delicateincisions on bone or stone in various patterns, are usually consideredas decorative elements per se. However, it seems that there is more tothis Natufian 'decoration' than meets the eye. First, in that,as mentioned above, it was proposed that the clustering of distinctivepatterns found exclusively at certain sites could be interpreted asmarkers of specific social units - whether of a group, an extendedfamily or a tribe. Secondly, the occurrence of the same complex patternduring the Early Natufian at both Hayonim and Kebara Caves couldindicate physical and/or social ties between these two sites. The ambiguity concerning the interpretation of such objects isreminiscent of historical problems in decoding the patterns observed inFranco-Cantabrian Palaeolithic art (Bahn & Vertut 1988). In thatcase, as in the one discussed presently, it was only recently that asuggestion was made to consider some of the supposedly purely decorativeelements as notations, i.e., that they might have a coded meaning, andbe instrumental, at least in part, for the delivery of coherent messagesin an orderly mode (i.e. Marshack 1972). It appears that amongst theNatufian 'art' there are other examples in which the engravedpatterns could be interpreted as notation marks, i.e. a deliberatetransfer of information. A good illustration is the recent (1997) findof an incised limestone slab at Hayonim Cave. This slab (cat. no. 940;[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 5, 6 OMITTED]) was found in a feature, Locus11, which cuts through the wall of Locus 10. As the excavation of thisarea is not yet completed, all that can be said at present is that Locus11 belongs to a later phase of the Natufian occupation at the cave.Incised limestone slabs have been recorded previously at Hayonim Cave(Belfer-Cohen 1988; 1991a), and some have undergone detailed examinationby Marshack (1997b), who concluded that the markings were undoubtedlynotational. It seems that the slab, the object of the present study,confirms the idea that there is a message 'encoded' in theincised pattern and that it is not simply of decorative or aestheticvalue. Although the Early and Late Natufian differ in burial customs,lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" production, and dwellings (Belfer-Cohen 1991b; Goring-Morris1995; Valla 1995), notations on limestone slabs are present in HayonimCave throughout most of the sequence of Natufian occupations of thesite. For example, the incised limestone slabs uncovered in Locus 8belong to one of the latest occupations of the site (see Marshack 1997b:[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 25-27 OMITTED]). The object described here [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 5-6 OMITTED],unique in the intricacy in��tri��ca��cy?n. pl. in��tri��ca��cies1. The condition or quality of being intricate; complexity.2. Something intricate: the intricacies of a census form.Noun 1. of its design, is currently under detailed study(Marshack pers. comm.). In general, the overall pattern of notation isvery similar to that observed on items previously reported from HayonimCave (Belfer-Cohen 1991a; [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 8:6 OMITTED] &[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 10 OMITTED]; Marshack 1997). A'ladder' pattern separates two squarish or rectangular areasincised in clusters of lines. In one area the clusters are composed ofhorizontal and vertical lines, while the other contains clusters ofvertical lines separated from each other by a meandering pattern. Thereare other incised lines nearby, but they are positioned at a distancefrom the tightly arranged patterns of the 'areas' describedabove: horizontal lines above the 'ladder' pattern anddiagonal ones below it. The pattern is repeated on one of theslab's narrow edges, consisting of vertical and horizontalincisions. The other surfaces of the slab bear no signs of engraving orcarving. The 'ladder' pattern, in the central axis of the the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle.See also: Axis incised slab, is similar to others already reported from Hayonim cave(Belfer-Cohen 1991a). The overall layout is new, as is the meanderingpattern which, though common in the Natufian repertoire, has neverpreviously been encountered at Hayonim Cave. It has been observed oncarved basalt basalt(bəsôlt`, băs`ôlt), fine-grained rock of volcanic origin, dark gray, dark green, brown, reddish, or black in color. Basalt is an igneous rock, i.e., one that has congealed from a molten state. bowls from Ain Mallaha (Eynan) (Perrot 1966) and Shukbah(Noy 1991); on a limestone slab exposed in Wadi Hammeh 27 (Edwards1991); and on a small bone object found at El-Wad (Garrod & Bate1937). The main difference between these examples and the slab fromHayonim is the overall, complex pattern of the design. The generalsurface of the slab has been divided into distinct units, which can beviewed as designating definite territories or 'fields' of somekind. A similar interpretation, stressing the notion of'space' has been suggested by B. Klima (1988, in Svoboda 1997)with reference to an engraved pattern on a mammoth tusk, uncovered inPavlov I (Svoboda 1997). As stated earlier, there exists archaeological evidence to indicateterritoriality TerritorialityBehavior patterns in which an animal actively defends a space or some other resource. One major advantage of territoriality is that it gives the territory holder exclusive access to the defended resource, which is generally associated with among the Natufian communities, be it social orgeographical or both. The idea that the Natufians were the first tocultivate fields near these sites, as suggested long ago by Garrod(Garrod 1957), is once more increasing in popularity (Bar-Yosef &Meadow 1995), making this interpretation all the more enticing! Therearises the question of whether this design represents an actualphenomenon, serving as a 'map' of particular'fields' located in the vicinity of the site, or if itsymbolizes some abstract concept of 'fields'? Unfortunately,10,000 years of unremitting cultivation, erosion and alluviation made itimpossible to trace even the outlines of Natufian fields through aerialphotography. There are many issues to be considered in deciphering the Natufianmessages engraved on the limestone slabs or the bone objects. Ourchallenges are not so very different from those of the Europeanresearchers who face the enigmas of markings on stone and bone itemsfrom the Upper Palaeolithic (see for example Bosinski 1984; Marshack1997b; D'Errico 1992; Svoboda 1997). Are these markings sequentialnotations recording time, events, or distances (Marshack 1997b)? Do theyrepresent sets of numbers or proto-mathematics (Frolov 1981)? Perhapsthey are maps (Gladkih et al. 1984; Klima 1988, in Svoboda 1997), or arewe looking at a mnemonic Pronounced "ni-mon-ic." A memory aid. In programming, it is a name assigned to a machine function. For example, COM1 is the mnemonic assigned to serial port #1 on a PC. Programming languages are almost entirely mnemonics. scheme (Layton 1992: Roberts & Roberts1996)? What was the role of these notations within the social realm ofpast hunter-gatherers or early cultivators? Answers to these questions will engage scholarly research for quitesome time to come. All that can be said for now is that, 60 years afterthe discovery and definition of the Natufian culture in the Levant, weface yet another emerging aspect of its fascinating culture. References BAHN, P.G. & J. VERTUT. 1988. Images of the Ice Age. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. 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