The 12,000‑year‑old clay figurine, recovered from a Natufian village in northern Israel, depicts a woman embracing a goose and is the oldest known object showing a direct human–animal interaction. Analyses indicate it was fired at about 750°F (≈400°C), measures roughly 1.4 inches tall, contains red pigment and ochre, and bears a possible female fingerprint. Found with burials and goose remains, the figurine is interpreted as evidence of symbolic or spiritual beliefs linking humans and animals. The study, published in PNAS, connects this symbolic language to later Neolithic traditions that accompanied the shift to farming and settled life.
12,000‑Year‑Old Figurine of Woman Embracing a Goose Reveals Early Human–Animal Spiritual Bond
The 12,000‑year‑old clay figurine, recovered from a Natufian village in northern Israel, depicts a woman embracing a goose and is the oldest known object showing a direct human–animal interaction. Analyses indicate it was fired at about 750°F (≈400°C), measures roughly 1.4 inches tall, contains red pigment and ochre, and bears a possible female fingerprint. Found with burials and goose remains, the figurine is interpreted as evidence of symbolic or spiritual beliefs linking humans and animals. The study, published in PNAS, connects this symbolic language to later Neolithic traditions that accompanied the shift to farming and settled life.
02:56 AM, 11/19/2025Culture
A tiny clay figurine dated to about 12,000 years ago portrays an intimate embrace between a woman and a goose — the oldest known object to depict a direct interaction between a human and an animal. Uncovered at a Natufian village in what is now northern Israel, the piece offers a striking glimpse into the symbolic life of communities on the threshold of permanent settlement.
Context and discovery
The Natufian culture, which thrived roughly between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago, represents one of the clearest archaeological windows into the transition from mobile hunter‑gatherer bands to more settled villages before the full development of agriculture. Relatively few artifacts from this period show clear human–animal encounters, and most earlier examples came from Europe. That makes this discovery in Southwest Asia particularly important for understanding regional symbolic traditions.
What the figurine reveals
The figurine stands just about 1.4 inches tall and appears to have been made from local clay fired at roughly 750°F (≈400°C), indicating precise control of heat. Chemical and microscopic analyses detected traces of red pigment and ochre, and researchers identified a fingerprint that may belong to an adult or young adult female craftsperson. The object also demonstrates advanced artistic techniques for its time — described by the authors as manipulating clay volume and light to create a sense of perspective — techniques that became more common in the Early Neolithic.
"It captures a transformative moment," said Leore Grosman, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "It bridges the world of mobile hunter‑gatherers and that of the first settled communities, showing how imagination and symbolic thinking began to shape human culture."
Interpretation and cultural significance
Although Natufian people consumed geese, the figurine appears to depict the bird as alive and meaningful rather than merely as prey. The researchers propose the scene represents a mythological or symbolic encounter, reflecting beliefs in the animacy of living and nonliving things or a sense of shared agency between species. The figurine was found within a stone structure alongside human burials and ceremonial deposits; the site also yielded goose feathers and bones, supporting a ritual or symbolic context for the object.
The authors argue that this kind of symbolic vocabulary later blossomed in Neolithic cults and figurative traditions across Southwest Asia, a cultural development that accompanied the rise of agriculture and more durable sedentary lifeways. The discovery, reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, thus links a single small object to broad shifts in social imagination and ritual practice at a pivotal moment in human history.
Publication and source: The research was reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; key commentary and excavation analysis were provided by Leore Grosman and colleagues.