Jerusalem, 18 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Archaeologists working in northern Israel have uncovered the earliest known clay ornaments in Southwest Asia, a discovery that suggests people were shaping clay for symbolic and social purposes thousands of years before the invention of pottery or the rise of agriculture.
The find includes 142 beads and pendants dating back about 15,000 years to the Natufian period, when communities in the Levant were beginning to live in permanent settlements while still relying on hunting and gathering. The study, led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and published this week in the peer-reviewed Science Advances, indicates that clay was already being used to express identity and social belonging long before it was used for cooking vessels or storage jars.
“It is the first time that a complete collection of ornaments was found that is large enough to be understood,” Dr. Laurent Davin of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology told The Press Service of Israel.
“Before this find, it was believed that the use of clay for ornamentation started about 11,500 years ago, only with the agricultural way of life. But here we see that it started way before, about 15,000 years ago, when agriculture did not even exist and the Natufian people were still hunter-gatherers.”
The ornaments were discovered at four Natufian sites in what is now northern Israel: El Wad, Nahal Oren, Hayonim, and Eynan Mallaha. The small objects were carefully shaped from unbaked clay into cylinders, discs, and elliptical forms. Many were coated with red ochre using a coloring technique in which a thin layer of liquid clay is applied to the surface.
Davin told TPS-IL this is the earliest known example of that technique anywhere in the world.
Until now, archaeologists had identified only five clay beads from this period worldwide. The newly uncovered collection shows that the use of clay for ornamentation was not a rare experiment but a widespread and sustained tradition among Natufian communities, Davin added.
He said analysis of the shapes revealed nineteen different bead types. Many appear to echo forms found in the plant world, including wild barley, wheat, lentils, and peas. These plants were central to the Natufian diet and would later become key crops during the development of agriculture.
Traces of plant fibers preserved on several beads show how the ornaments were strung and worn, providing rare evidence of organic materials that usually disappear from the archaeological record.
Perhaps the most striking evidence, Davin said, came from the surfaces of the objects themselves. Researchers identified fifty preserved fingerprints on the clay, allowing them to determine that the ornaments were made by people of different ages.
Some of the prints belonged to children, suggesting that making ornaments was not limited to skilled artisans but was a shared activity within the community.
“It is the first time in the entire world that we can identify the makers of Paleolithic ornaments,” Davin said. “It was the work of children and adults together, perhaps as some initiation to ornamental practices.”