The 'Ain Ghazal statues: the human figure in lime plaster

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What was found

According to a page of the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute, "extraordinarily rare" plaster statues dating from around 6500 BCE were discovered in 1985 at the Neolithic site of 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan. The group includes two standing figures about 1 metre high and three two-headed busts, and the page's heading speaks of five statues. The material the page names is lime plaster. Source 1.

The material dictated the treatment

Because of the fragility of the lime plaster, the entire contents of the pit containing the statues were encased in aluminium foil and sent to the Smithsonian for a seven-year process of laboratory excavation and conservation. The statues were exhibited at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery from 28 July 1996 to 6 April 1997 and returned to Jordan for display at the Jordanian Archaeological Museum on the Citadel in Amman. The page does not say in which years the conservation took place. Source 1.

Two sources, two levels of detail

The Met's timeline, under about 7000-6000 BCE, says that clay and plaster were moulded into statues at Jericho and 'Ain Ghazal, that they were "fashioned on reed frames" and that they portray men, women and children. The Smithsonian page, as read, does not mention reeds. The timeline does not say which statues it means, or whether the group uncovered in 1985 is among them; the article therefore does not attribute reed frames to the five statues of the Smithsonian page. Sources 2, 1.

One date, two wordings

The Smithsonian page gives "around 6500 B.C.", and the timeline places the statues in its entry for 7000-6000 BCE, which contains that date. But the same entry says the statues were made "a thousand years before the use of pottery", while the chronology of the same page dates the Pottery Neolithic to about 7000-5500 BCE, and the page does not reconcile the two. The article leaves both wordings as they are. All these dates fall within the site's Levant Neolithic page (about 10,000-5500 BCE), so there is no need to choose between them in order to place the article. Sources 1, 2.

What the material allows us to say

The fragility of lime plaster is a fact about the material, and it is what determined how the statues were lifted and conserved. The page offers no interpretation of the statues' purpose and does not say whom they represent. Material, form and size can be described; purpose, belief or ritual need a source that proposes them and evidence that supports them. The plastered skulls, which the timeline mentions in a separate sentence, are another group of finds: this site documents one such skull, from Jericho, on its own page, and the article does not compare it with the statues. Sources 1, 2.

Scope of reading: the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute page on the 'Ain Ghazal statues and the Met timeline page for 8000-2000 BCE were read on 24 October 2026. The 'Ain Ghazal excavation publications and the conservation reports were not read, so this page gives no account of the statues' internal structure, of the pit's place in the site's levels, or of laboratory dates.