Plant-Female Iconography j 8181 81
The precise meaning of the trees is not known, but their placement on the altar suggests
that they had religious significance. Within the “temple,” the famous “Mother Goddess” of
Hagar Qim was found (Figure 4.8B). Although no direct connection can be made between
the tree altar and the female figurine of Hagar Qim, their presence within the same context
provides yet another example of the association between plant and female images.The Secondary Products Revolution of the Chalcolithic
The type of farming that initially spread from the Fertile Crescent throughout Europe
from 7000 to 4500 bce was hoe- agriculture or horticulture, although some archaeolo-
gists believe that ards— primitive plows consisting of forked branches— made their earliest
appearance during this interval. Hand- held implements and ards were adequate for cer-
tain types of soils with lighter textures, but were not suitable for hard- packed, stony soils.
The labor intensiveness of hand hoeing also limited the amount of acreage that could be
placed under cultivation, thus limiting the population sizes of the settlements. The cen-
tral importance of women’s labor and expertise within these early agricultural communi-
ties may have been key factors promoting egalitarianism between the sexes, as indicated
by the equality of their burials and the preponderance of female figurines found at many
Neolithic settlements. However, by the Bronze Age in the fourth millennium bce, all this
had changed. The agricultural enterprise had been greatly expanded; populations had vastly
increased, leading to urbanization; and the societies that emerged from the first cities were
now socially stratified and patriarchal in nature. As we enter the historic period, the iden-
tities of deities become clear for the first time. What happened to bring about the radical
transformation of agricultural societies that began to take place around 5000 bce during
the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age?
According to Andrew Sherratt’s widely accepted model for the sweeping changes to
Neolithic society that ultimately gave rise to Bronze Age states, the most important innova-
tions were the plow, the exploitation of animals for traction, and the increased use of ani-
mals for milk and wool.^24 Sherratt proposed that the livestock of the Near East (sheep, goat,
and cattle) had originally been domesticated for their “primary products” (meat, hide, and
bone). “Secondary products,” such as milk, wool, and traction, were utilized only on a small
scale during the Neolithic. During the Chalcolithic, the use of animal secondary products
greatly intensified in the Near East, and the innovations then spread to Europe and Asia.^25
Since it was first published in the early 1980s, Sherratt’s overall synthesis has so far survived
intense scrutiny, although many questions remain.^26
Simple ards may have first appeared in the Neolithic, but the widespread use of plows
apparently dates to the early fourth millennium bce in Mesopotamia, and images of ox-
drawn plows are already in evidence in Eastern Europe by around 3500 bce. Wooden
plowshares were soon replaced by bronze, greatly increasing their hardness and strength.
A “seeding funnel” was invented that sowed seeds deep into the furrow as it was dug. With
the invention of wheeled vehicles around 3000 bce, oxen were also recruited to pull heavy
four- wheeled carts, providing increased mobility and transport capacity. Images of ox-
drawn carts or plows always show men operating this equipment as well as harvesting the
crops, signaling that the long span of time in which women had held primary responsibility