12,000-Year-Old Clay Figurine of Woman and Goose Suggests Earliest Human‑Animal Mythic Scene

12,000-Year-Old Figurine Offers a Window into Prehistoric Belief

A small fired-clay figurine, dated to about 12,000 years ago and unearthed at the Natufian village of Nahal Ein Gev II above the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, depicts a crouching woman with a goose perched on her back in a mating posture. Researchers say the scene may represent an imagined union between a human and an animal spirit — one of the oldest examples of mythic human-animal interaction yet discovered.

Where it was found

The 1.5-inch (3.7 cm) object was recovered inside a semicircular stone structure roughly 16 feet (5 meters) in diameter at Nahal Ein Gev II, a settlement associated with the Natufian culture that bridged mobile hunter-gathering and early sedentary life in Southwest Asia. The figurine was found in the fill of the structure alongside other items with ritual significance, including a cache of human teeth and the remains of a child.

Artistic detail and manufacture

According to Laurent Davin, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lead author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the figurine is the earliest-known example worldwide showing direct interaction between a human and an animal in sculpted form, and the oldest naturalistic — rather than stylized — depiction of a woman from Southwest Asia.

The figurine was shaped from clay, left to dry, then fired for durability. Traces of red pigment remain, and a fingerprint of the maker is visible. The artist modeled the piece with a clear emphasis on the left profile and used light and shadow to suggest depth and perspective — techniques that point to sophisticated visual thinking for the period.

"We interpreted the interaction scene as the depiction of the imagined mating between an animal spirit and a human," said Leore Grosman, a Hebrew University archaeologist and co-author of the study. "This theme is common in animistic societies, appearing in erotic dreams, shamanic visions and myths."

Meaning and cultural context

Animism — the belief that animals, plants, places and objects possess spiritual essences — helps frame the researchers' interpretation. University of Connecticut anthropologist Natalie Munro, also a co-author, noted that hybrid or sexualized human-animal imagery across cultures typically serves symbolic, ritual or cosmological purposes rather than literal description.

While researchers describe this as the oldest mythological scene found so far in Southwest Asia and among the earliest globally, they note that other prehistoric sites, such as the Lascaux cave paintings in France (about 18,000 years old), include arguably older examples of mythic imagery.

Broader significance

At Nahal Ein Gev II, villagers hunted gazelles, used feathers and butchered geese, practiced complex crafts such as weaving, and gathered materials like flint and limestone. The figurine’s symbolic scene — apparently unrelated to hunting — suggests that settling in one place stimulated new forms of social life, storytelling, symbolic expression and artistic experimentation.

Researchers propose the object may have served as an ornament, an amulet with protective or magical associations, or a prop in ritualized storytelling or staged installations intended for communal viewing.

Publication and credits: The research is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery and analysis were led by Laurent Davin and colleagues from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and partner institutions.