Neolithic Art: The Monumental Figures from Ain Ghazal
The generous on-line publication of material from Ain Ghazal by multiple interested parties makes the monumental figures from Ain Ghazal particularly accessible. Before teaching the class, I had come across a Jstor-available article by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (”Ain Ghazal Monumental Figures” in Number 310, 1998), to which I attribute all that follows. But today, I find much more on the internet. You may find Ain Ghazal Excavation Reports by the same author, which include a chapter on the Monumental Statuary, including a lengthy “Stylistic Analysis”, as well as a description and catalogue of a second cache of statues. Chapter 5 on the “Decorated Skulls” offers great material for the contextualization of the form of the monumental figures, and the Introduction provides background on the town. A conservation project also provides some information on the University College London website.
In class, I introduced the human figures from Ain Ghazal by asking the students to place in order from the smallest to the largest the following carved objects: the Venus of Willendorf, the Lion Man, and the figure from Ain Ghazal, and the discussion begun with the paleolithic carved figures in the previous unit may here continue. The students should appreciate that the figure from Ain Ghazal stands almost 3 1/2 feet high, taller than my almost-five-year-old daughter.
I then asked the class to identify what the Venus of Willendorf, the relief carving of a woman from Laussel, and the figure from Ain Ghazal all have in common. This question trains their close reading of the survey text.
Two-headed figures and the figure holding her breasts, both motifs of divine figures in later art of the Near East, suggest the identification of these statues as divinities. A description of how the statues were made and where and how the archaeologists found them (as two caches, buried in good condition two hundred years apart) can then lead to a discussion of context and use. Images of the statues from the side also give clues to their possible placement within a space.
Again, the understanding of context, placement, and use make these figures meaningful.