There is little evidence of violence among prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Yael Toren found interest in a rare find which was uncovered during the 1930’s excavations at Kebara Cave, a karstic cave formed in the hard limestone of the western escarpment of the Carmel mountains in Israel. A tiny crescent-shaped tool, known to archaeologists as a Lunate microlith, typical of the Early Natufian culture, c.a. 13,000-12,000 BC, was found embedded within the seventh or the eighth vertebra of a middle-aged man. Calculations of the force required for the lunate to penetrate the vertebra and to kill as it did, suggest a purposeful strike from a short distance. 15,000 years later, pure violence does not require physical force, a keyboard thousands of miles away is enough.
Two objects, a hand-made paper soaked in red pigment and a fist-sized blown-glass pendant, both designed in a shape of a vertebra, implicitly remind the viewer of a primeval human image. Their fragile nature articulates the idea of vulnerability in a violent reality.
Vertebra,2023
Hand made paper from Abaca’s fibers
100/150 cm
The paper was made in the workshop of Izhar Neumann - Handmade Paper Maker.
A blown-glass object
20x20 cm