Figurative representations from neveh yam and other sites in Israel: Markers of the late neolithic/ early chalcolithic south levant cultures

Four symbolic artefacts were recovered from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah culture) site of Neveh Yam, dated to the sixth-fifth millennia BCE. These comprise two anthropomorphic figurines made of stone, one anthropomorphic image incised on bone and a sherd with zoomorphic incisions. These artefacts are described and discussed with reference to similar objects found in additional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the southern Levant and later sites in Mesopotamia, the Aegean and the Iberian Peninsula. It is proposed that the bone figurines from Neveh Yam, cEn Sippori and Ha-Gosherim could represent a symbolic marker for the Wadi Rabah culture and contemporary cultures in the southern Levant.