The Khirbet Kerak Ware figurine: a new component in the Kura-Araxes cultural assemblage

Abstract

Recent excavations of Khirbet Kerak Ware contexts at the type site of Khirbet el-Kerak/Tel Bet Yerah and re-investigation of earlier finds from this site have permitted the technological and typological identification of a distinct category of zoomorphic figurines, associated exclusively with the characteristic red-black burnished Khirbet Kerak ceramics. Comparative study shows affinity between these figurines and similar objects found in different parts of the Kura-Araxes cultural community, from the Levant to the Iranian plateau. Consisting solely of horned cattle, we suggest that zoomorphic figurines represent a significant aspect of the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition in its expansion along the margins of the West Asian political and economic cores, during the final phase of the ‘secondary products revolution’.