10,000 year-old Relative?

This page was begun 29 October 2003, last revised on 31 October 2003  ... rak.

Ten thousand years ago seems a very long time ago.  And who would have guessed that one would find today a portrait of a man, probably our relative, possibly even our ancestor, who lived at that time in the middle east in or near the place where our ancestors likely were?

But it has happened!  Recently an archaeological dig at Kibbutz Kfar Har-Horesh, less than two miles from the Nazareth town center has uncovered a large burial ground dating to 8,000 years before the time of Christ.  Three of the bodies had had the soft tissues of the skull removed before burial and replaced with a lime plaster molded to the skull to reform the facial features.  Two of these had been painted red -- one with red ocher and the other with a pigment that is only found in central Turkey.

One of the two painted red is shown here.    Click on it to enlarge it.  The picture was taken by Nigel Goring-Morris and was copied by me from the "Archaeology News" section of the November/December 2003 Archaeology magazine, p.10.

Look like anyone you know?  As of now we do not know with any certainty if the person who molded the clay was trying to recreate the features of the deceased or if he or she were following some idealized death mask form which was used for all such burials.  My own best guess is that this person was trying to simulate a real human being.  Death masks pretty clearly don't do that.  Here is a picture of an early Egyptian death mask (about 5,500 years ago).  The picture is copied from page 55 of the same Archaeology magazine.  However, I have now heard from the guy who wrote the article.  He believes the three clay faces are stylized and not serious efforts to recreate the looks of the three with the clay faces.  Too bad!

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