❷ Modern archaeological and anthropological research
evolved in western civilization, which is dominated
by a Christian point of view. Unlike most
other religions, its attitude to dance is negative. In
the New Testament, the term is mentioned only
once, in the extremely dramatic dance of Salome,
which concluded with the beheading of John the
Baptist (Mark 6, 21–26). In contrast, the Old Testament
described dancing dozens of times, using ten
different verbs (Gruber 1981). Indeed, dance is not
part of any official Christian liturgy. The unawareness
of western scholarship of the importance of
ABSTRACT – Indications for dancing activities in prehistoric Europe appeared as early as modern
humans, at the start of the Upper Palaeolithic era. However, only limited data are available for this
stage. In the Neolithic period, evidence for dancing appeared at many more sites, but the territory
is confined to south-eastern Europe. The dancing in this case is probably part of the ‘Neolithic package’,
which diffused from the Near East.
IZVLE∞EK – Prvi indici in omejeni podatki o plesu so v prazgodovinski Evropi povezani s pojavom
modernega ≠loveka v starej∏em paleolitiku. V neolitiku je podatkov mnogo ve≠ in vsi so omejeni na
prostor jugovzhodne Evrope. Ples je bil verjetno del neolitskega paketa, ki se je ∏iril iz Bli∫njega Vzhoda.
KEY WORDS – prehistoric dance; Upper Paleolithic; Neolithic; decorated pottery; figurines
DOI> 10.4312dp.37.18Yosef Garfinkel
206
dance in human activity must be
seen against this background. This
unawareness combined with fragmentary
evidence resulted in dance
being overlooked even in the very
few cases in which it can be recognized.
Thus, the first step in developing
dance research is to create the
intellectual environment which recognizes
dance as an important human
activity, and opens our mind to
the evidence available to reconstruct
dance in the past.
Dance is a rhythmical movement
which can be classified as a form of
non-verbal communication. It is not
limited to humans and is preformed
by various animals such as bees,
birds and mammals. In the animal
world, it is always performed by a
solo individual. In human society,
dance is usually preformed by groups
of people, and in a variety of situations.
The importance of dance in human
evolution has been specifically
emphasized by McNeill (1995), while
many other scholars have written general introductions
as well as discussions of various aspects of
dance (see, for example, Sachs 1952; Lange 1976;
Royce 1977; Hanna 1987). In traditional societies,
dance is a major social activity, as demonstrated by
the many dancing activities of the San Bushmen of
South Africa (Marshall 1969; Biesele 1978; Katz
1982). Part of this rich ethnographic data, as well as
of other human groups, was summarised in Dancing
at the Dawn of Agriculture (Garfinkel 2003). An important
observation is that, after hours of rhythmical
circular dancing, a few of the participants often fell
into a trance. The trance was understood to be a form
of contact between the community and supernatural
powers; in other words, a mystical event, the core of
religious experience. The clear connection between
dance and trance is probably the main reason for the
depiction of intense dancing in many religions ceremonies