Posted on 11/28/2018 11:31:13 AM PST by Red Badger
Israeli archeologist Ronit Lupu holds a rare stone mask dating to the Neolithic period which was found at the Pnei Hever region of southern Hebron mount, in this picture taken on November 28, 2018
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JÉRUSALEM -
The Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday unveiled what it said was a rare 9,000-year-old stone mask linked to the beginnings of agricultural society.
The pink and yellow sandstone object was discovered in a field at the Jewish settlement of Pnei Hever, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the IAA.
The artefact was handed in to authorities in early 2018.
"The mask is very naturalistic in the way it was made," said IAA archaeologist Ronit Lupu. "You can see the cheekbones, you can see a perfect nose."
"It's a rare mask," she told AFP. "The last one that we know was found 35 years ago. It's an amazing find, archaeologically speaking."
The West Bank is a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Disputes over ownership of artefacts discovered there are just part of the long-running conflict with the Palestinians over the land.
The IAA placed the mask at a pivotal period in Neolithic culture.
"Stone masks are linked to the agricultural revolution," the authority said in a statement.
"The transition from an economy based on hunting and gathering to ancient agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities."
Among such activities, it said, was ancestor worship.
"It was part of the ritual and retention of family heritage that was accepted at the time," the statement said.
"Stone masks, such as the one from Pnei Hever, are similar in size to the human face, which is why scholars tend to connect them with such worship."
PinGGG!.....................
A 9,000 year old mask in one piece ?
Hmmmmmm, could this have belonged to Michael Myershowitz?
It’s a miracle!......................
Michael Myers got around.
So does Jamie Leigh Curtis.................
“The transition from an economy based on hunting and gathering to ancient agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities.”
It’s a transition not a demarkation.
Agriculture and the domestication of plants was co-existant
with the hunter gather culture even into the present in
less industrialized groups.
Sorry, they just always make it sound like Shazam! there
was agriculture!
Thanks for ibteresting sttivlr. I will read elsewhere about the mask they found in Israel — without having to suffer the Nazi-style “subliminal attempted brainwashing” of such distortions as “the Israeli- occupied West Bank”. Ha! Especially from a publisher whose entire country, including Paris and its Left Bank, are being invaded/ occupied by the next rulers of France
I have always believed that agriculture is waaaay older than what scholars now think.........................
the original NPC
Sounds like they discovered the source artifact for Purim.
AKA Bill Shatner. (already Jewish)
The face looks a bit metrosexual.
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