Ritual and Religious Practice

There is a wealth of material representing ritual and religious practice during the Chalcolithic, though much of it remains enigmatic (see Ritual, Religion, and Ideology). The well-known ceramic statues from Gilat (‘Gilat Lady’ and ‘Ram with Cornets’) likely represent ritual icons or paraphernalia. There are also smaller figurines that may have been used in ritual practice. ‘Violin-shape’ figurines have been found at sites such as Peqi’in, Ghassul, and Gilat where there are over 50 examples made from a variety of materials, many directly associated with the sanctuary. The ivory figurines appear mainly in the Beer Sheva area, and a unique bone figurine blending elements of the two traditions has been found at Shiqmim. Other evidence for cultic practice includes massebot, or standing stones found at a number of sites, and fenestrated incense burners, named as such because traces of charring as well as their form suggest they were used for the burning of organic material. Sites with cultic architecture include Ein Gedi, Gilat, and Teleilat Ghassul, where archaeologists have excavated clusters of building and open courts identified as temple complexes. At Ghassul, portions of murals depicting what appear to be mythical figures have been preserved.

See also: Animal Domestication; Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant; Household Archaeology; Metals: Primary Production Studies of; Plant Domestication; Ritual, Religion, and Ideology; Settlement System Analysis; Social Inequality, Development of; Spatial Analysis Within Households and Sites.