Ain Ghazal PaintingAin Ghazal, near Amman Jordan, the construction of a highway in 1974 revealed another important settlement in ancient Palestine at the site of Ain Ghazal, occupied from 7200 to 5000 BC.
The inhabitants built houses of irregularity shaped stones, but carefully plastered and then painted their floors and walls red.
The most striking finds at Ain Ghazal, however are two caches containing three dozens plaster statuettes and busts, some with two heads, datable to 6500 BC.
The sculpture appear to have been ritually buried. The figures were fashioned of white plaster which was built up over a core of reeds and twine.
The sculptors used black bitumen, a tarlike substance to delineate the pupils of the eyes.
On some of the later figures painters added clothing.
Only rarely did the artists indicate the gender of the figures. Whatever their purpose by their size (as much as three feet tall) and sophisticated technique, the Ain Ghazal statuettes and busts are distinguished from Paleolithic figurines such as Venus of Willendorf and even the foot tall Hohlenstein-Stadel ivory statue.
They mark the beginning of monumental sculpture in the Ancient Near East.
Ain Ghazal Painting
