A 12,000-year-old clay figurine of a woman and a goose marks symbolic innovations in Southwest Asia
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This paper introduces a 12,000-year-old clay figurine from Southwest Asia that pushes back the emergence of several fundamental innovations in human symbolic expression. This object is both the earliest naturalistic representation of a woman in Southwest Asia and the earliest figurine to depict a human–animal interaction. Notably, the depicted interaction is not related to hunting but presents a mythological scene between a human and a bird that is consistent with an animistic belief system. Finally, the figurine attests to artistic innovations including and manipulating clay volume and light to create perspective, foreshadowing techniques that become popular in the Early Neolithic that follows.
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Davin L., Munro N.D., Grosman L. (2025) ‒ A 12,000-year-old clay figurine of a woman and a goose marks symbolic innovations in Southwest Asia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122, 47, p. e2517509122. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2517509122 [Accédé le 18 novembre 2025].
See also the interview with Laurent Davin on the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Research website :
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Myotte Duquet P. (2025) ‒ Découverte en Asie du Sud-Ouest de la plus ancienne figurine représentant une interaction humain-animal, Recherche à l’université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. https://recherche.pantheonsorbonne.fr/actualite/decouverte-en-asie-sud-ouest-plus-ancienne-figurine-representant-interaction-humain [Accédé le 18 novembre 2025].
Nathalie Le Tellier-Becquart / UMR TEMPS 
Laurent Davin 
Tous droits réservés - Emilie Lesvignes 
Routledge
Crédit Malo Hesry