A 12,000-year-old clay sculpture unearthed in Israel may depict an animistic scene of a goose mating with a human woman. Discovered at the Nahal Ein Gev II site in 2019, the artifact's significance was only recognized this year. Archaeologists interpret it as a mythological representation rather than a literal event.
The tiny 3.7-centimetre-tall figurine was found at Nahal Ein Gev II, a site inhabited by the Natufians, Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers who were predecessors to the Neolithic farming communities in the Middle East. Collected in 2019, its meaning became clear in 2024 when Laurent Davin at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined it closely.
Davin expressed absolute certainty about the depiction. “When I took this small block of clay out of its box, I immediately recognised the human figure and then the bird lying on its back,” he said. “I then understood that I held in my hand an exceptional piece, both in terms of the subject depicted and the quality of the modelling, created 12,000 years ago.” Geochemical analysis showed the clay was heated to around 400°C, and the artist demonstrated skill in modeling anatomy and light effects. A fingerprint on the figurine likely belongs to the creator, whose small hands suggest a young adult or adult female.
The researchers view it as the earliest known human-animal interaction figurine, predating older hybrid carvings like the 40,000-year-old Lion Man from Germany, though those do not show direct interaction. They dismiss literal interpretations, such as a woman carrying a dead goose. Instead, Davin explained: “We interpreted the scene as the depiction of the imagined mating between an animal spirit and a human. This theme is very common in animistic societies across the world in specific situations such as erotic dreams, shamanistic visions and myths.” The goose's posture aligns with a mating gander.
However, Paul Taçon at Griffith University in Australia offered an alternative view. “Thinking about growing up in Canada and Canadian geese, [it] reminded me of how they attack when they are angry,” he noted. “When you turn and run, they will fly up and attempt to land on your back to peck your head or neck. It may be that a story about a woman being attacked by a goose was represented rather than an intimate encounter, but we will never really know the exact meaning.”
The findings appear in PNAS (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2517509122).