Archaeological clues

What clues do the archaeological excavations provide?

 The plaster statues were found in a specially dug pit, placed in a group, many face down.
 The pit was dug through the floor of an abandoned house.

Five of the statues lay with their heads toward the west end of the pit. This arrangement suggests that the statues were probably buried together at the same time. The pit was not unearthed again until modern archaeologists found them.

The parts of one of the two-headed busts were found scattered in the pit, indicating that the statue had been broken prior to burial.

 Why were the statues buried?

 Burying statues of human form together in a pit may suggest a link with actual burials of humans at 'Ain Ghazal.
 In many human burials at 'Ain Ghazal, a single body was buried for a while. After the fleshy parts decomposed the upper part of the skull was removed, leaving the lower jaw.
 The body was placed in a flexed position under a floor or courtyard within a house.

Sometimes the skull was covered with plaster and the eye sockets inlaid with bitumen, a natural asphalt, giving them a lifelike appearance. Later, the skull was reburied together with skulls from other burials at the site.

Three plaster faces modeled on human skulls, found at 'Ain Ghazal, are displayed in this exhibition.

 What can we conclude from these archaeological clues?

 Burying statues of human form together in a pit may suggest a link with actual burials of humans at 'Ain Ghazal, but there are also some important differences.

• Human burials were usually placed individually in graves, not in groups. Plaster statues have not been found in inhabited houses.
   
•  Human burials were often dug up and the bodies altered, unlike the statues which were not disturbed once they were buried. The one bust whose fragments were found scattered in the pit suggests that the statues had been used for some time before they were buried.
   
•  Perhaps the statues were used as cult objects, then buried with special care because of their importance and meaning.

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 Last updated: July 28, 1996

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