HK148b Aterian Hut Site, Har Karkom, Israel, Gallery 2 -- West Sector
c. greater than 100,000 to 24,000 BP; p) hk148b #14 hexagonal nuclei

Aterian hutfloor HK 148b, West Sector, artifact #14; flint, disc core or discoidal biface.

Tentative interpretation (James Harrod): Geometric, pentagonal or hexagonal disc core or discoidal biface, possibly female figurine or 'goddess'. There appears to be intentinal flaking at top (as pictured here) suggestive of a head or face. The fact that it is a core or nucleus might have evoked a notion of the 'core' or 'essence' of that which gives life, the life giver.

Compare the Tukano view that their territory is hexagonal as are all watersources, burial grounds, the human heart, the womb and the brain, The cosmos is hexagonal. Shamans stand in a hexagonal space and the shaman's quartz crystal is hexagonal and all hexagons contain the energy of the sun which, like sperm and womb, gives life as well as rainbows (Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1996. The forest within: The world-view of the Tukano Amazonian Indians. London: Themis.) Given the many female-like figurines in the Wests Sector of the hutfloor, we might hypothesize for the Aterians a universe of bi-gendered forces.

Photo © James Harrod. James Harrod site photos taken on Emmanuel Anati Har Karkom Expedition, April 1996.
4/4/1996