A Note on Chalcolithic Ossuary Jars: A Metaphor for Metamorphosis

Nativ, Assaf

doi:10.1179/033443508788921285

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Bar‐Yosef and Ayalon () suggested that box and jar ossuaries were representations of grain silos, an idea taken up by Shalem (, 224, 232–3). Nativ () made an intriguing proposal for the interpretation of a particular subset of decorated ossuary jars (Fig. ).…”

Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…). He suggests that ‘they symbolize cocoons and embody a concept of death as a prolonged process of metamorphosis’ (Nativ , 209). Indeed, both the grain silo motif and the chrysalis motif echo concepts of transformation and regeneration.…”

Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than being mere effigies, ossuaries were imbued with multiple but coherently associated meanings; the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features are conflated with other regenerative motifs – most frequently the granary (Bar Yosef and Ayalon ), but also the chrysalis (Nativ ). It is our belief that the latter two motifs do not imply reincarnation as either a granary or a butterfly.…”

Section: How Chalcolithic People Perceived the Nature Of Reincarnationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Ilan

Rowan

2019

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary We examine and reinterpret the phenomenon of containers used for the secondary burial of human remains – ossuaries – in the Chalcolithic period of the southern Levant, c.4500–3700 BCE. Ossuary form and decoration, both plastic and painted, is evocative and symbol‐laden. Since their first discovery in the 1930s, several hypotheses have sought to explain ossuary iconography, but none provides an integrated, holistic interpretation. Chalcolithic iconography, mortuary contexts, and archetypal mythologies suggest that ossuaries, mainly of clay, but also of stone, served as vehicles of reincarnation.

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Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Chalcolithic People Perceived the Nature Of Reincarnationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Ilan

Rowan

2019

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…Gal et al 2007;Joffe 2003;Rowan & Ilan forthcoming), or toward the interpretation of symbols employed in these contexts (e.g. Bar-Yosef & Ayalon 2001;Nativ 2008;Shalem 2008). However, very little has been done to clarify and articulate the cemeteries as dynamic phenomena, to disclose the practices they hosted and the transformations they underwent.…”

Section: Chalcolithic Burial Caves and Some Spatial Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cemetery as a Symbol: a Reconsideration of Chalcolithic Burial Caves in the Southern Levant

Nativ

Gopher

2011

CAJ

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The deposits of disarticulated human remains in caves, often associated with designated ceramic receptacles, is one of the most striking hallmarks of the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant. Owing however to their perplexing variability, this phenomenon is still poorly understood. Approaching these sites as cemeteries and social institutions, this article presents a reconsideration of their structures, temporal trajectories and meanings. It is argued that at least two regional subgroups can be distinguished, differing in the identities they structure, their concerns and their underlying logic.

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A Note on Chalcolithic Ossuary Jars: A Metaphor for Metamorphosis

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

The Cemetery as a Symbol: a Reconsideration of Chalcolithic Burial Caves in the Southern Levant

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