Venus of Berekhat Ram
Encyclopedia
Berekhat Ram
Berekhat Ram ; , is a Palaeolithic site near Mas'adah, at the foot of Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights. It is the findspot of the Venus of Berekhat Ram, a pebble allegedly worked by Homo erectus....
on the Golan Heights in the summer of 1981 by archaeologist N. Goren-Inbar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
. An article by Goren-Inbar and S. Peltz (1995) claims it has been modified to represent a female human figure, identifying it as a possible artefact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
made by Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
of the later Acheulean
Acheulean
Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains...
, in the early Middle Paleolithic
Middle Paleolithic
The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...
. The term "Venus" follows the convention for labelling the unrelated Venus figurines of the Upper Paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...
. The claim is contested.
The object
The base object is an anthropomorphic red tuficTuff
Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered...
pebble, 35 mm (1.4 in) long, which has had at least three grooves, possibly incised on it by a sharp-edged stone. One is a deep groove that encircles the narrower, more rounded end of the pebble, two shallower, curved grooves run down the sides. These grooves can be interpreted as marking the neck and arms of a figure. They closely resemble marks made in similar material by sharp-edged tools during exercises in experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. It should not be confused with primitive technology which is not concerned...
.
Interpretations
It is disputed whether these can be clearly distinguished from naturally-created lines. In 1997 American researcher Alexander MarshackAlexander Marshack
Alexander Marshack was an American independent scholar and Paleolithic archaeologist. He was born in The Bronx and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from City College of New York, and worked for many years for Life magazine.-Archaeology career:Despite lacking a PhD, Marshack became a...
argued using microscopic analysis that the grooves around the "neck" and down the "arms" were human made. However Steven Mithen
Steven Mithen
Steve Mithen is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has written a number of books including The Singing Neanderthals and The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science.-See also:...
in 1999 argued that Marshack's arguments "do not demonstrate that the lines are indeed intentional and that if they were that they were intended to represent a female figure". He took the view that research was yet to be done to determine whether "scoria
Scoria
Scoria is a volcanic rock containing many holes or vesicles. It is most generally dark in color , and basaltic or andesitic in composition. Scoria is relatively low in mass as a result of its numerous macroscopic ellipsoidal vesicles, but in contrast to pumice, all scoria has a specific gravity...
found in non-archaeological contexts" could "carry incisions that might be confused with stone tools"
It remains uncertain whether or not the pebble has been modified by human action. If it has, there is the separate question of whether the scratches had any artistic or symbolic intent, and if so, whether they sought to make the object resemble the female form, as do the much later and rather different Venus figurines of the Upper Palaeolithic.
In 2000 d'Errico and Nowel argued that the incisions could be reliably identified as human-made, but a practical function related to tool-making could not be ruled out: "the use of different types of raw materials to produce a varied tool kit seems well documented." However some of the abrasions "are not necessarily consistent with a functional use of the object", suggesting that symbolic intent is a serious possibility. They conclude that it is "problematic" to identify a human body, as the cognitive and cultural context is so alien, saying that probably there will never be any agreement about what was intended by the marks.
Because it was found between two layers of ash, it has been dated by tephrochronology
Tephrochronology
250px|thumb|right|Tephra horizons in south-central [[Iceland]]. The thick and light coloured layer at the height of the [[volcanologists]] hands is [[rhyolitic]] [[tephra]] from [[Hekla]]....
to at least 230,000 years before the present. If the artifact was intended to replicate a female figure, it would be the earliest example of representational art in the archaeological record. Rather than being made by modern humans, it would have been made by Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
, hunter-gatherers and Acheulean
Acheulean
Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains...
tool users. There is some other evidence of an aesthetic sensibility during the period although compelling examples do not appear in the archaeological record until the emergence of modern humans around 50,000 years ago.