The Ain Ghazal statues
Human figures modelled in plaster over reed frames, made in Jordan around 7200 BCE.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 700 years
- Known to
- ± 200 years
- Era
- Neolithic, Holocene
Two caches at Ain Ghazal near Amman contained around thirty figures — some full statues nearly a metre tall, some busts, several two-headed — built up from lime plaster over bundled reed armatures, with bitumen-outlined eyes. They are among the oldest large-scale human representations known. They had been deliberately buried in pits, which suggests they were retired rather than discarded.