부산대학교 도서관

Two ivory figurines, recently added to the collections of the Israel Museum through the generosity of Mr. J. Boxenbaum, are discussed, along with the technique of ivory-carving and several iconographic-sculptural conventions in Chalcolithic representational art. The female figurine (13.5 cm high) is stylistically identical to the Beer-Sheva anthropomorphic representations in ivory. In certain details, it resembles the plaque-like figurines rather than the three-dimensional sculptures. Two stylistic features are discussed in detail: the perforations around the top of the head and, in that connection, the cavities appearing in heads of certain of the Beer-Sheva figurines. Double perforations, diagonally interconnected (as on our figurine) served for threading of facial hair and, possibly, for attaching the head to the body (through perforations at the base of the neck). Single perforations could have served to fasten a symbolic "crown"-like addition which, it is suggested, may have been inserted into the head cavity. Elephant and hippopotamus tusks were rare, expensive and hard to obtain, and the ivory cutters undoubtedly utilized all of this precious raw material. Since such tusks are partly hollow lengthwise, it is suggested that the enigmatic peculiarity of head cavities could have resulted from this specific structural nature of the tusk. The second figurine, 3.5 cm high, is fragmentary, only the horned head and upper torso surviving. Stylistic features, discussed in detail, would place this figurine in the Beer-Sheva sculptural horizon as well. Despite the horns, this figurine has certain stylistic features well known from the anthropomorphic Beer-Sheva representations (round eyes, prominent nose, lack of mouth, breasts), but is entirely different from the animal heads of Gilat or of the Judean Desert hoard. There are no animal representations in the Beer-Sheva ivory assemblage and, therefore, there is no conclusive evidence pertaining to iconographic conventions of Beer-Sheva zoomorphic sculpture. Alternately, it would be suggested that this is an anthropomorphic representation symbolically adorned by horns. Symbolic use of horns in sculpture is a convention for which numerous examples in Chalcolithic regional traditions in this country, as well as in the sculpture of the Ancient Near East, can be cited.