Thousands of years before the world was supposedly created, people in the southern Levant were already shaping clay into figures. A study published in PLOS One describes 154 figurative clay artefacts from three Natufian sites, associated with communities dating to approximately 15,000–11,650 calibrated years before present. That places them roughly between 13,050 and 9700 BCE — long before the traditional young-Earth creation date of 4004 BCE. Even the younger end of that range precedes this supposed beginning of everything by nearly 5,700 years.
The findings also illuminate a human story much more interesting than a compressed biblical chronology allows. These were hunter-gatherer communities experimenting with settled life and symbolic expression before the establishment of agricultural societies. Fingerprints and manufacturing traces indicate that children as well as adults participated in clay working. We cannot confidently recover what the figures meant to their makers, but we can investigate how they were made and who helped to make them.
For biblical literalism, the difficulty does not end with people making things before people supposedly existed. Their remains also belong to an archaeological record that must somehow accommodate a later, planet-wide, mountain-covering flood. The relevant question is not whether an individual clay object could survive contact with water. It is how such a catastrophe could be reconciled with the preservation of recognisable occupation deposits, structures and relationships between artefacts — the contextual evidence that makes archaeology possible. Invoking a global inundation adds an enormous event for which a convincing explanation of these surviving contexts is required.
The researchers did not set out to test Genesis, and this paper is not a study of flood geology. Its significance lies in what it reveals about the development of human culture. Nevertheless, the chronological conflict is unavoidable: these communities belong to a documented human past far older than the entire history permitted by young-Earth creationism. Once again, archaeology uncovers people with skills, traditions and lives of their own where biblical literalism requires there to have been no world at all.
The Natufians^ settled life before farming. The Natufians were hunter-gatherer communities of the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean region, who lived approximately 15,000–11,650 calibrated years before present. Their culture bridges the closing stages of the Palaeolithic and the emergence of Neolithic farming societies.The paper on PLOS One was announced in a press release from the British Friends Of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
Natufian sites preserve stone-built structures, burials, ornaments and figurative objects. These communities show that increasingly settled life and elaborate symbolic traditions could develop before economies based on domesticated crops and livestock.
Settling down is not the same as farming Sedentism describes where and how continuously people live; agriculture describes how they produce food. The two need not begin together. Nor does working clay necessarily imply making pottery vessels: modelling a figurine and producing a durable cooking pot involve different practical requirements.
The new study identifies an established Natufian tradition of clay figures, with evidence that both children and adults participated. This predates the widespread use of pottery vessels in the region. Settlement, farming and pottery therefore should not be treated as an indivisible “Neolithic package”.
What can the figures tell us? Manufacturing marks and fingerprints reveal aspects of production and participation. Their original meanings remain uncertain: calling a figure a deity, a fertility symbol or a toy requires evidence beyond its shape.
Brief glossary
- Natufian:
- An archaeological culture of the late prehistoric Levant.
- Epipalaeolithic:
- The later hunter-gatherer period following the Upper Palaeolithic and preceding the Neolithic in this region.
- Neolithic:
- The “New Stone Age”; its characteristics and dates vary between regions.
- Domestication:
- Heritable changes in populations associated with sustained human management and selection.
- Calibrated years BP:
- Calendar-age estimates, with “present” fixed at 1950. Thus, 15,000–11,650 cal BP corresponds approximately to 13,050–9700 BCE.
Before Farming, Early Communities Were Already Shaping Clay Into Symbols
New study of 154 Natufian clay figurines reveals the earliest known clay figurative tradition in Southwest Asia, pushing the timeline back by up to 3,000 years and showing that both children and adults took part in creating symbolic objects.
Could tiny clay figurines hold the key to understanding how prehistoric communities passed down knowledge and traditions? A new study reveals that children and adults worked together to create miniature figures, with ancient fingerprints offering rare evidence of hands-on learning across generations. The discovery of 154 clay artifacts dating back as far as 15,000 years challenges the belief that sophisticated symbolic expression emerged during the end of the Paleolithic, suggesting that at that time they were far more artistically innovative than previously thought.
Long before the emergence of farming villages and the invention of pottery, people living in what is now Israel were already shaping clay into miniature figures of birds, animals and humans. A new study has uncovered evidence of a 15,000-year-old artistic tradition, challenging longstanding assumptions about when early societies began using clay for symbolic expression.
The research identified 154 clay figurative artifacts from three archaeological sites in Israel, including 15 recognizable figurines and 139 cylindrical fragments believed to have formed parts of figures. The findings provide the earliest evidence of an established clay figurine-making tradition in Southwest Asia, suggesting that artistic innovation and complex symbolic practices emerged well before the establishment of farming communities.
The artifacts were created by members of the Natufian culture, communities that lived in the region approximately 15,000 to 11,650 years ago. These communities were the first in Southwest Asia to establish permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Until now, researchers generally believed that the widespread use of clay for symbolic figures developed alongside agriculture during the Neolithic period.
The study was led by Dr Laurent Davin, Prof Leore Grosman and Prof Anna Belfer-Cohen from Hebrew University in collaboration with Prof Mina Weinstein-Evron, Prof Reuven Yeshurun, Prof Daniel Kaufman of the University of Haifa, Dr Marion Sindel and Dr Hamoudi Khalaily from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem and Dr François R. Valla from the CNRS and Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem.
Ancient Fingerprints Reveal Children at WorkThese discoveries change how we understand the beginnings of artistic expression in the first villages of humanity. Thousands of years before agriculture and pottery emerged, people were already using clay to create figures, as part of their beliefs and knowledge of the natural world. What is particularly fascinating is the evidence that children were involved in making these objects, suggesting that creativity and cultural knowledge were shared across generations.
Dr. Laurent Davin, first author.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Institute of Archaeology
Jerusalem, Israel.
A Natufian cylinder (fragment of figurine body or appendage) modelled in clay 14,000 years ago and discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley). It bears the fingerprints of the child who modelled it and later colored it red with engobe (a mixture of liquid clay and ochre), suggesting that children took part in every stage of figurine production.© Laurent Davin.
One of the study’s most remarkable findings concerns the people who created the figurines. Using microscopic analysis of fingerprints preserved in the clay, the researchers found evidence that both adults and children participated in shaping and decorating the objects. Some fingerprints belonged to children likely younger than ten, offering rare insight into childhood and learning in prehistoric societies.
On one human-shaped figurine, researchers identified two overlapping fingerprints, one left by a young adult or adult woman and another by a child who had not yet reached puberty. Their placement suggests that the object may have been passed between an older individual and a child during its creation, providing possible evidence of hands-on learning across generations.
The children’s fingerprints were not simply accidental marks. Their placement indicates that children actively participated in shaping and even coloring the objects, suggesting that figurine-making may have helped transmit artistic skills and cultural knowledge.
Birds, Animals and the Beginnings of Storytelling
Fragment of a Natufian figurine depicting a gazelle head with horns made of perishable materials (e.g., twigs) modelled in clay 12,000 years ago, discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha
Among the 15 identifiable figurines, birds were the most common subject, accounting for 11 examples. The remaining figures included representations of a mammal, a gazelle and two human forms.
Some birds were represented through simple shapes, while others displayed carefully marked wings, tails and feathers. Several appear to depict ducks and geese, while others may represent birds of prey. Interestingly, certain figurines show birds with their heads tilted downward and turned to the left, a posture researchers suggest may represent courtship displays observed among ducks during the breeding season.
This raises the possibility that the figurines were more than decorative objects. They may have conveyed knowledge about animal behavior, seasonal changes and the natural world, potentially playing a role in storytelling and cultural traditions.
Researchers also discovered traces of red coloring on several figurines, including evidence of engobe, a technique involving the application of a thin layer of colored clay. One figurine, dated to 15,000 years ago, provides what the study identifies as the earliest known evidence of this coloring technique.
Natufian figurines depicting waterfowls, a bird of prey and a human-bird (woman-goose) interaction, modelled in clay 15,000 years ago (left) and 12,000 years ago (right), discovered at the site
Rethinking the Origins of Human Artistic Expression
The discoveries were made at three Natufian sites: Eynan-Mallaha in the Upper Jordan Valley, Hayonim Terrace in the Galilee and el-Wad Terrace on Mount Carmel. Researchers examined previously overlooked clay fragments, identifying fingerprints, tool marks and traces of coloring that revealed deliberate artistic work.
Unlike carving figures from stone or bone, working with clay allowed people to gradually build, reshape and decorate their creations, representing an important technological and artistic development.
The findings challenge the longstanding view that major advances in symbolic expression emerged alongside agriculture. Instead, they suggest that early hunter-gatherer communities were already developing sophisticated artistic traditions in the first villages of humanity, sharing knowledge across generations and finding new ways to represent the world around them.
These tiny clay figures offer a rare glimpse into the creativity and everyday lives of some of the region’s earliest settled communities, thousands of years before the agricultural revolution.
This study is part of a broader research project exploring the emergence of the symbolic use of clay in Southwest Asia. The project has already led to the discovery of the earliest known figurine depicting a human–animal interaction, found at Nahal Ein Gev II (PNAS), and the earliest known clay ornaments outside Europe (Science Advances).
The 15 Natufian figurines depicting gazelles (A-B), humans (C-D) and birds (E-O), modelled in clay between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, discovered at the sites of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley) and Hayonim Terrace (Lower Galilee).© Laurent Davin.
A Natufian figurine depicting a stylised human body modelled in clay 15,000 years ago, discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley). The back of the clay figurine bears the fingerprint of an adult, covered by a child’s fingerprint. This sequence of gestures in the wet clay, when the figurine was being modelled, is a rare direct testimony of inter-generational knowledge transmission in a hands-on apprenticeship.© Laurent Davin.
Publication:
These small clay objects present young-Earth creationism with a large chronological problem. The people who made them were living, learning and expressing themselves thousands of years before the date at which biblical literalists place the creation of the world. Their fingerprints are traces of real individuals, including children, engaged in activities that archaeology can investigate. A chronology that leaves no room for their existence fails to account for the evidence.
The supposed global flood creates a further difficulty. The issue is not the simplistic claim that no clay object could survive immersion, but the preservation of archaeological contexts in which objects, occupation deposits and structures retain meaningful relationships. A recent catastrophe powerful enough to inundate every mountain and remodel the landscape would require an explanation of how those contexts survived. Simply inserting Noah’s flood into the story supplies no such explanation; it adds a claim that must itself be tested against the evidence.
Meanwhile, the scientific interest lies in the more detailed human history emerging from these discoveries. Settled life, symbolic expression, clay working and agriculture did not have to arrive together as a ready-made package. Communities could develop some practices before others, experiment with materials and pass skills between generations. The evidence of children’s participation makes that history particularly tangible, while uncertainty about the figures’ meanings reminds us that recognising the limits of our knowledge is part of responsible interpretation.
None of this research needed to begin with an argument against Genesis. Its purpose was to understand the surviving evidence, and that is precisely why its implications are so damaging to biblical literalism. Science can revise its account when neglected artefacts reveal a richer past; a chronology fixed by scripture can only accommodate that past by abandoning its own restrictions. The Natufians left their fingerprints in clay. They were under no obligation to make their lives fit a creation myth written thousands of years later.
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