Laurent Davin
A collection of 142 small clay beads and pendants reflects the symbolic thinking associated with the emergence of sedentary communities and agriculture, with humans seeing themselves as capable of manipulating nature.
A new publication in Science Advances is shedding new light on one of the most transformative periods in human history: the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary agricultural life.
Investigators discovered what are believed to be the oldest known clay ornamentsdating back 15,000 years, offering a rare glimpse into the cultural changes that preceded agriculture.
The discovery focuses on a collection of 142 small clay beads and pendants made by the Natufian culture. This group of hunter-gatherers lived in the Levant region and is widely considered to be one of the first societies to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, long before the emergence of agriculture.
Ornaments are particularly significant because they appear to reflect a primitive symbolic thought linked to plant life. Among the artifacts, researchers identified 19 distinct bead shapes modeled after important wild plants such as barley, wheat, lentils and peas, species that would later become staple foods of early agricultural communities.
According to lead researcher Laurent Davin, these findings suggest that plants had not only practical importance but also symbolic value for the Natufians. This corroborates the idea that the roots of agriculture can be both in cultural and cognitive changes such as environmental or economic needs.
The study is in line with the theories proposed by Jacques Cauvin, who argued that a “symbolic revolution” in human thought paved the way for the Neolithic Revolution. Rather than agriculture emerging purely as a survival strategy, Cauvin suggested that it was driven by a deeper transformation in the way humans perceived their relationship with nature, seeing themselves as capable of controlling it.
Further evidence of cultural complexity comes from the craftsmanship of the beads. Many were coated with red ocher using an early form of a coloring technique known as engobe, marking the earliest known use of this method. Even more impressive, researchers identified around 50 fingerprints preserved on the artifacts, revealing that they were made not just by adults, but also by teenagers and children.
This intergenerational involvement suggests that these objects may have played a role in transmitting cultural knowledge and identity within the community.
