Some of the most ancient human statues and busts in the world, were found in Jordan.
Some can be seen in the Jordan National Museum and others in The Citadel Museum, in Amman. The rest are spread around the world.
In 1970, an unknown Neolithic site, near Amman, was discovered, during the construction of a motorway.
The first plastered statues were discovered in 1983, in this Neolithic village called Ain Ghazal, that means Gazelle's spring.
These statues with distinctive eyes are dated, approx., from 6750 B.C.E., before the development of pottery.
Their size varies from half a meter to almost full human size and were created by molding moist plaster from limestone that had been layered over bundles of twigs, reeds and other grasses.
Some of them have two heads and joined bodies. They could have been siblings, twins, husband and wife, parent and child, others.
A total of 15 statues and 15 busts were found in two caches, which were separated by nearly 200 years.
The ones of the first cache have arms and the bodies are more curvilinear. The statues of the second cache are larger, more angular and have no arms. The two head statues appear in this cache.
Both have no genitalia and were carefully buried in pits dug into the floors of abandoned houses.
Archeologists discovered that this ancient community were farmers that cultivated cereals, legumes and chickpeas; goat herders and hunters of wild animals, as deer, gazelle, fox and others.
They lived in houses made from field stones covered with mud and lime plaster with red pigment.
They also found stone tools, clay figurines, cooking hearths with food remains and graves.
It was also discovered that some of the village's dead were buried under the floors of the houses and a few skulls were plastered
Archeologist believe that these statues are related with human burial rituals. But, the main purpose remains uncertain.
Understanding this mysterious statues of Ain Ghazal and the Neolithic artists who made them, helps us to understand more about our human cultural evolution.