Abstract
The Halafian culture of the Near East, c. 6400–5500 BC, is characterized by a large number of dancing scenes on pottery vessels. Sometimes the dancing figures were depicted in bleary schematic representations. In this way, only members who participated in the dance were able to understand the full meaning of the decorated vessels. This phenomenon can be connected with the ‘secret society’ behaviour, as a main component of the rituals of secret societies is dance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 427-439 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | World Archaeology |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- Arpachiyah
- Halafian culture
- Secret societies
- encrypted art
- prehistoric dance
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