Neolithic settlement of Ain Ghazal in Jordan and its alabaster statues

In 1984, road builders in Jordan discovered Ain Ghazal, the largest Neolithic settlement yet found, which at its height, in the 8th millennium BC, was home to 3,000 people. The population of Jericho in the same period is estimated at around 2,000. Ain Ghazal also covered 15 hectares, five times the area of the most ancient Jericho settlement.

Near some of the buildings archaeologists found buried alabaster statues of people, and this although the inhabitants of Ain Ghazal buried their dead either in their houses or in the fields, sometimes detaching the heads of the deceased in order to keep them at home. Skulls coated with plaster and bitumen were found in the dwellings.

The anthropomorphic statues are made in a similar technique: shells set in the eye sockets, with pupils of bitumen. The whole body of each figure was covered with painted tattoos, and the hair on the head was painted too, although a few statues hint at the presence of a wig. In all, 32 such alabaster people with thick legs have been found.

Much of the work of studying the Jordanian anthropomorphs of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic was done by scientists of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Scanning established that the statues were held up by an internal skeleton of ropes, which rotted away with time but once allowed the effigies to stand.

One woman from the group of Ain Ghazal figures is now on display in the Louvre, where she is considered the oldest exhibit in the museum: the most recent datings place the find at 8440-6500 BC.