The Lady and The Goose: World’s Earliest Human-Animal Interaction Figurine

 

Figure 1: Late Natufian figurine of a woman and a goose (Source: Davin et al., 2025)

 

Archaeological work is often likened to a treasure hunt.  Archaeologists methodically locate sites of human occupation or interaction, but they do not necessarily know what they will discover upon taking trowel to the ground and carefully peeling away the layers of soil.  While every artifact tells a story sometimes an artifact is discovered that shakes the bedrock of what we currently know or do not yet know about the group under study.  Today’s blog post will address one such discovery in Israel.

 

Scholars at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced in November 2025 the discovery of the 1.5 inch figurine that depicts a naked woman with a living goose draped over her shoulders (Figure 1).  This figurine is the earliest depiction of a human-animal interaction, and it also holds the title of the earliest realistic illustration of a woman ever found within southwest Asian contexts. 

 

These in and of themselves are pretty remarkable, but this tiny figurine also provides additional insights into early life in southwest Asia.  First, the figurine is 12,000 years old, having been found at a Late Natufian village site.  This period is characterized as one of transition from nomadic foraging to sedentary, early agriculture lifeways, wherein various other social, economic, and political changes were underway.  The complexity of this figurine, made from local clays and fired at high temperatures, also demonstrates that the maker had extensive knowledge of how to successfully create ceramics.  A fingerprint on the figurine also gives insights into who this maker was: they were either a adolescent or young adult female. 

 

The figurine was discovered in a semi-circular structure wherein burials and ritual objects were present.  It is known from other aspects of the site that geese were consumed for their meat, but their feathers and bones were used for decoration.  The illustration of a woman and a goose found within these specific contexts suggests that the purpose of this drawing may have been either ritual or mythological.  While the specific meaning of the illustration is unknown it is clear that this shows that the Late Natufian people were very creative and understood and created symbolic art, allowing scholars to better understand the transition from foraging to sedentary lifeways in the region.

 

References

Archaeology Magazine. (2025, November 18). 12,000-Year-Old Figurine Uncovered in Northern Israel. Archaeology Magazine.

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), e2517509122.

Steinmeyer, N. (2025, November 24). The Woman and the Goose. Retrieved from Bibliocal Archaeological Society: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/the-woman-and-the-goose/

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (2025, November 17). The woman and the goose: a 12,000-year-old glimpse into prehistoric belief. Retrieved from Eureka Alert! AAAS: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1105939