Reviews
A young and fresh attempt to tackle a subject which has long stood in the shadow of the study and interpretation of anthropomorphic imagery.Professor Louis Nebelsick, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw
Animal Iconography in the Archaeological Record
New Approaches, New Dimensions
Edited by
Laerke Recht [+–]
University of Cambridge
Laerke Recht, archaeologist, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge (Affiliated Scholar, former Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow). Her main interests include human-animal relations, gender, religion and iconography, with a focus on the Bronze Age Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East.
Katarzyna Zeman-Wisniewska [+–]
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw
Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska, archaeologist, Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Her main fields of interest are the Cypriot and Greek Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeology, with special reference to cult and religion. Her recent research concerns birds in Prehistoric Cyprus.
Animals pervade our lives, both today and in the past. From the smallest bug through pets and agricultural animals to elephants and blue whales, the animals themselves, animal-derived products and representations of animals can be found everywhere in our daily lives. This book focuses on the representations of animals in the past: How were animals represented in iconography, and how is the craftsperson interpreting animals within his or her own cultural context? What do the representations tell us about the role and function of both animals and the representations themselves?
A series of papers explore these questions through images of animals. This is, for example, done by using technologies like 3D models to emphasize the dimensionality of objects, or through theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches that examine the intersection of the human and the animal. The papers challenge the notion of animals purely as objects, instead focusing on the many ways in which humans and animals interact. The importance of animals in all aspects of our lives means that the study of human-animal relations is an extremely relevant one both in the past and today. The papers take us on a journey through time and space, demonstrating exactly this relevance. Starting in the Neolithic and ending in the Medieval period, from the Mediterranean and Northern Europe through Siberia and the Baltic to the other side of the world in Australia, we have the privilege of encountering lions, horses, dogs, monkeys, birds, kangaroos and octopuses, among many other wonderful creatures.
The book is an important and exciting contribution to the study of human-animal relations. It should be of interest to anyone working on this topic and the interpretation of images – both modern and ancient.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
University of Cambridge
Laerke Recht, archaeologist, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge (Affiliated Scholar, former Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow). Her main interests include human-animal relations, gender, religion and iconography, with a focus on the Bronze Age Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw
Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska, archaeologist, Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Her main fields of interest are the Cypriot and Greek Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeology, with special reference to cult and religion. Her recent research concerns birds in Prehistoric Cyprus.
Some of the earliest recognisable images created by humans depict depict animals. Life and death, personal encounters, an engagement with the environment, religious beliefs, supernatural powers, ideology, status, technology and skill – these are just some of the aspects of human existence reflected in this iconography. The papers in this volume explore this specific type of material culture, addressing the ways in which humans have chosen to represent animals, and what these representations reveal about human-animal interaction.
Chapter 2
PhD student at the Institute of Oriental Archaeology at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Nicola Scheyhing, archaeologist, a PhD student at the Institute of Oriental Archaeology at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, and a freelancer in cultural representation and promotion. Her dissertation concerns Late Neolithic Burials in Northern Mesopotamia. Her focus of interest is on critical examination of ritual and religion in early prehistoric contexts as well as scicomm and narrative in archaeology.
The material culture of Late Neolithic groups of the Near East is characterised by the appearance of painted pottery fine wares. Characteristic features of the 6th-millennium Halaf culture also include settlements containing round and keyhole-shaped buildings, as well as by the presence of highly stereotyped anthropomorphic clay figurines mainly depicting females. These objects have been discussed comprehensively since their first appearance during early excavations at the beginning of the 20th century. Much less attention has been paid to the zoomorphic figurines of the same dating and context, although they occur in similar numbers. While the anthropomorphic figurines are usually interpreted as venerated items with a clear link to rituals, zoomorphic figurines have received little attention in publications. They are sometimes described, but in many cases they have been simply counted. Images of animals are also found on a high percentage of painted fine-ware sherds. The societies that used Halaf material culture are considered to have been communities of farmers inhabiting villages of varying sizes and life spans but also living as seasonal pastoralists. For such a lifestyle, animals must have been a main factor of subsistence and had a crucial impact on settlement patterns, as well as on social structures. Animal bone assemblages from various Halaf sites also show a regionally varied relevance of hunting. While the images painted on pottery display a large variety of wild fauna, most zoomorphic figurines seem to depict domestic animals. This leads to the conclusion that their main relevance of the figurines can be contextualised in a domestic ambience. Besides figurines, a number of fine-ware animal-shaped vessels occur at a number of sites. Some examples recently excavated from Tell Halaf representing cattle indicate the increasing importance of bovines in the 6th millennium BC due to the process of learning to take advantage of their strength.
Chapter 3
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Evangelia Voulgari, archaeologist, member of the Laboratory Teaching Staff of the School of History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her areas of interest and research are in prehistoric archaeology and material culture studies, while her main research area is Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery from northern Greece. She is a member of the research teams in the excavations of the prehistoric settlements at Dispilio, Kastoria, and at Archontiko, Pella, in northern Greece.
Based on the analysis of Late Neolithic pottery from Dispilio, northern Greece, this chapter aims to shed light on the social significance of vessels decorated or shaped with animal characteristics. A variety of such vessels occur in the ceramic assemblage of this lakeside settlement, and among them is a remarkable number of so-called ‘rhyta’, which is a peculiar type of shallow, slanted vessel on four legs and with large vertical handles. Their enigmatic form and territorial spread (from southern Greece through Albania to northern Italy, to Lipari and the Aeolian Islands, and to Kosovo and central Bosnia) have puzzled many researchers and led to a number of theories. The Dispilio assemblage provides the opportunity of examining these peculiar vessels along with other zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and ‘x-morphic’ representations. Using the vessels with animal characteristics as a baseline, I shall attempt to propose an alternative approach, seeing the surface of the vessels as the contact zones between humans, things and animals, where exchanges take place through representation. These zones of interaction, where the boundaries of worlds jostle each other, are considered the outcome of negotiations of bodyscapes – distinguished from the flesh and blood they seek to imitate and framed by human intention, in order to either transgress or to emphasise the dichotomies of human-animal, animate-inanimate.
Chapter 4
University of Pennsylvania
Marie Nicole Pareja, archaeologist, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Millersville University and Pennsylvania State University. Her most recent iconographic projects identify emerging connections between the Bronze Age Aegean and Indus River Valley via Mesopotamia, the Near East, and possibly even Egypt through animal imagery, with a particular emphasis on monkeys.
Exchange between the Aegean and Mesopotamia during the Early Bronze Age is well documented; so is contemporary exchange between Mesopotamia and the Indus. Precious stone, shells, metals, and other raw materials illustrate these early connections, and slightly later textual sources reinforce these relationships. Early imagery and its development, translation, and adaptation further support ideas of mid-to-late fourth millennium BC far-reaching exchange. By examining the types and movement of ape and monkey iconography from the Early Bronze Age Indus, through Mesopotamia, and to the Aegean, one may associate simian iconography with a class of exotic, elite imports to the Aegean, particularly Crete. In contrast to previous scholarship, this discussion acknowledges the Aegean’s close relationship with Egypt while allowing for iconographic and perhaps ideological adoptions and translations via both closer-range exchange with Mesopotamia and the Near East and indirect long-distance exchange with regions as far east as the Indus River Valley.
Chapter 5
How Many Tentacles? Octo-pus and X-pus in the Aegean Bronze Age: A New Archaeozoological Approach [+–] 71-90
National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Lucia Alberti, archaeologist, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Heritage Sciences (ISPC). Her main fields of interest are Greek Bronze Age archaeology and the Mediterranean protohistory, with special reference to burial customs, landscape archaeology, and projects for the enhancement of historical sites.
University of Bari
Giambattista Bello, marine biologist, worked for the Marine Biology Laboratory and Aquarium in Bari (Italy) and for the University of Bari, currently retired, but still active in research. His main field of research is teuthology, the science that studies cephalopods.
The Mediterranean common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, was an important symbol in the Greek Bronze Age, and is a very widespread motif encountered on pottery, paintings, jewellery and so on, although its connotation is not fully understood. This cephalopod is one of the 13 autochthonous octopods living in the Mediterranean and the most easily observable because it can be found in very shallow waters. In agreement with its scientific and vernacular names – e.g. Greek: χταπόδι, English: octopus – the actual Octopus vulgaris has eight arms (or tentacles). However, in many Bronze Age representations, the common octopus is figured with a variable number of arms, including odd numbers which disrupt its natural bilateral symmetry: we can find octopuses with 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and also 10 tentacles. Through an integrated analysis of archaeological contexts, iconographies with ‘wrong’ numbers of tentacles, zoological identification and biological features, this paper will explore the various ways it was represented, as well as human-animal interactions and possible symbolic meanings of this truly fascinating animal.
Chapter 6
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw
Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska, archaeologist, Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Her main fields of interest are the Cypriot and Greek Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeology, with special reference to cult and religion. Her recent research concerns birds in Prehistoric Cyprus.
Cyprus is home to nearly 400 bird species and is annually visited by millions of birds during great spring and autumn migrations. This paper discusses the presence of birds in Cypriot prehistoric anthropogenic culture, using Bronze Age bird-shaped vessels (mostly askoi) as a case study, representing a rich variety of the island’s avifauna, from numerous ducks and pigeons to rare examples of partridge, vulture, and owl. They include vessels of simple forms, generally resembling waterfowl (ducks?), along with carefully modelled objects, which allow precise species identification. When identification is possible it often reveals species and subspecies which are still characteristic to Cyprus, or now endangered. A careful study of this vessel assemblage and their context (when possible) provide insights into the practical and symbolic role played by birds in the lives of the prehistoric inhabitants of Cyprus. Another aspect of these objects which is going to be discussed is their three-dimensionality. These are objects which were meant to be manipulated, touched, and seen from different angles. They also had the practical function of pouring liquids.
Chapter 7
‘Flying Gallop’ Iconography and its Representation in the Burial Rites of the Eurasian Bronze Age [+–] 103-113
Institute of History and Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Igor V. Chechushkov. archaeologist, Institute of History and Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests are trajectories of Bronze Age developments, horse domestication and early utilisation, social complexity, the Sintashta and Alakul’ cultures.
Saryarka Archaeological Institute, Buketov Karaganda State University, Kazakhstan
Emma R. Usmanova, archaeologist, Saryarka Archaeological Institute. Buketov Karaganda State University (Kazakhstan), director of Lisakovsk Archaelogical expedition. For over 30 years, she has been researching the Lisakovsk area Bronze Age burial sites. Her interests are ancient funeral practices and related rituals, women in past societies, the history of textile and ancient dress.
Republican newspaper “Druznnye Rebyata,” Kazakhstan
Olga N. Gumirova is a journalist, writer, photographer, and an editor of the Department of the Republican Children’s Newspaper “Druzhnye Rebyta” (Kazakhstan). She has participated in over two hundred archaeological expeditions of the Institute of Archeology named after Margulan, and nine international Dzhungarian Kazakh-American expeditions.
In this paper, we consider the origin of the ‘flying gallop’ concept in Inner Eurasia during the Bronze Age. We demonstrate that the concept was well known to the peoples of the Eurasian steppes at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. The case studies of the Novoil’inovskiy 2 cemetery and the Yeshkiol’mes sanctuary allow us to say that the ‘flying gallop’ was represented in ritual contexts and in rock art to symbolically illustrate the myth of the post-mortem travel of the soul to the Otherworld. In the first case, the carcasses of two sacrificed horses were arranged to resemble freely running animals, while the petroglyphs of the Yeshkiol’mes sanctuary indicates that the ‘flying gallop’ concept was utilised in ritual contexts.
Chapter 8
PhD Candidate, Leiden University
Lonneke Delpeut, archaeologist, with an MA in Classics & Ancient Civilisations – Egyptology from Leiden University, she is about to start her PhD in September. She specialises in visual studies in ancient Egypt and combines this with her passion for horses.
Egyptian tombs have long been a source of inspiration for understanding the function of ancient Egyptian society. The Egyptians depicted the horse in their private tombs from the Eighteenth Dynasty onward. This paper will focus on two aspects of these depictions. Firstly, it will discuss what the Egyptians intended the visitor to see, namely the horse in its depicted context. Secondly, an investigation of how these images can be of use to us as a source of information about what the Egyptians knew about the horse will be made by studying content. Finally, the potential symbolic function of the horse in the images will be studied. The theory of costly signalling will be applied to hunting scenes in private tombs to determine if they can be interpreted as a status symbol.
Chapter 9
PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge
Joanna Lawrence, archaeologist, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation examines conceptualisations of non-human animals through the lens of Southern Tradition Scandinavian rock art, implications for relationships between humans and animals, and the role of rock art in negotiating ontology.
The corpus of Scandinavian Southern Tradition rock art from the Bronze Age (1800-500 cal BC) incorporates the curved shape of ox horns in multiple modes. In addition to being the defining feature of the depictions of the animals themselves, in the carvings the horns appear clearly on the heads (presumably helmets) of some anthropomorphs, transposed onto the shape of the keels of ships from certain periods (Ling & Rowlands 2015), and also, as I will argue, in the depictions of anthropomorphs performing the ‘adorant’ or raised-arm gesture. In this chapter, I explore potential meanings for the ox-horn shape as a symbol through a quantitative exploration of its appearances in a sample of 84 panels from the province of Bohuslän, Sweden. My approach follows a semiotic perspective on this rock art, in which each element of the carvings is understood to carry meaning in relation to those situated within its shared visual ontology. I consider the ways in which the various forms interact with each other, and how they pattern in relationship to other features in the rock art. Through this, we discover whether understanding how the horn symbol is deployed in the rock art can help us understand its meaning, and what the symbolic use of an animal feature might reveal about the nature of human-animal relationships and the cultural concept of cattle in the Scandinavian Bronze Age.
Chapter 10
Museum of Nogent-sur-Seine in France
Nathalie Del Socorro, archaeologist, curatorial assistant for the Museum of Nogent-sur-Seine in France, affiliated with the University of Nanterre. Her main field of interest is the archaeology of the Macedonian region, particularly in the area of funerary practices.
This article aims to present and discuss some of the animal representations found on grave goods dated from the sixth and fifth centuries BC in the region of ancient Macedonia. The burials excavated in this region contained numerous grave goods, but gold sheets are one of the few types of objects that were locally produced, specifically for funerary purposes. Different figures were engraved or embossed onto these prior to attachment on different items of clothing, shoes and armour (notably helmets, gloves and pectorals), equipping the deceased for their final voyage. The omnipresence of lion figures is particularly important as it is characteristic of the region. Lions were often depicted in symmetrical motifs, of which they occupied a central position, forming sometimes a heraldic composition. The variations in style observed could indicate the presence of different craftsmen in the region. Many aspects pertaining to the function and symbolism of these sheets are still to be explored, especially the way in which they could emphasise the social status of the deceased.
Chapter 11
ReMa student, University of Groningen
Anna-Elisa Stümpel, archaeologist, a ReMa student at the University of Groningen. Her studies and research focuses on the archaeology of the Mediterranean world, landscape archaeology and social zooarchaeology, especially human-horse-relationships within the community of the Pazyryk Scythians (9th to 3rd centuries BC) from the Altai Mountains, with emphasis on the meaning and role of the horse in the ancient culture.
It is widely acknowledged that the horse had a key role in the nomadic lifestyle of the Scythians in Central Asia. As the archaeological record shows, being able to control the horse was an important element in Scythian culture, and a vast variety of different kinds of bridle styles indicate that their design was continuously optimised. Particularly the equipment of the archaeological group of the Pazyryk Scythians is characterised by a large variety of types with a local choice of motifs and designs for the riding gear. This paper will examine the design of bridle, saddle and headdress ornaments discovered in Pazyryk-1, Berel’11 and Ak-Alakha-3 kurgan 1, burial 2 via a comparative approach. By considering the decoration of the riding gear and its spatial distribution, it might be possible to gain insight into Pazyryk Scythian (political) relations at a later phase of their culture during the 3rd century BC.
Chapter 12
Dogs of Roman Britain: Secular, Sacred or Consumed? [+–] 183-194
University of Bradford
Branka Franicevic, archaeologist and forensic scientist, University of Oxford reader, Nottingham Trent University lecturer and a PhD student in University of Bradford. Her research interests concerns migration of people and animals, including funerary archaeology, in particular the treatment of the body and the inclusion of grave goods associated with the Silk Road cultures. Her second research area concerns environmental change in taphonomic context, and examination of the effects of microbiological and taphonomic processes on the decay of dismembered body parts.
Archaeological evidence on the role of the domestic dog in everyday life in Roman Britain is scarce. Dogs had likely been consumed or/and used in ritual practices during Britain’s Iron Age, but little is known as to whether this practice continued in the period of Roman conquest. Inevitably, new material cultures were introduced to indigenous Britons by Romans, and the Empire is known to have used dogs as companions, protectors and hunters, but not for consumption. This paper focusses on three facets that are archaeologically accessible: imagery/iconography, material evidence, and osteology. The aim is to assess the significance the domestic dog had within Iron Age and Romano-British society. This framework is illustrated by comparing evidence from major Romano-British archaeological sites in southern Britain from the early Iron Age (ca. 700 BC) to the late Roman period (ca. AD 450). Numerous depictions of dogs in Roman artwork ranging from statues to terracotta point to the high status of dogs in Roman society and intriguing symbolic roles. Osteological results further indicate a large increase of the number of dogs in indigenous British households from the Iron Age throughout the Roman period. This demonstrates that dogs of all ages lived with humans and were generally kept in good health. It informs us that dogs were used as a food source alongside other domestic animals to a limited extent during the Iron Age, a practice that decreased significantly in the Roman period. This analysis may demonstrate the link between cultural practices and cultural beliefs, connecting the study to broader anthropological research.
Chapter 13
Estonian Literary Museum
Tõnno Jonuks, archaeologist, Department of Folkloristics, Literary Museum in Tartu (Estonia). His studies concern the prehistoric and vernacular religions in Estonia in long-term perspective and the material side of religions. Recently, he has also studied relations between identity and religion, including contemporary paganism and nationality.
This article discusses a selection of animal depictions from the Eastern Baltic region. It is suggested that the modern Linnean taxonomy and biological characteristics may not always be the best methodology to identify animal species in art. By focusing on certain elements, it is demonstrated that certain figures depict mythical animals, an interpretation that has so far not been taken seriously. While the dragon or the oversized snake is clearly the ‘indigenous’ mythical animal in the north, the spread of Christianity introduced other mythical creatures, like leucrottas and griffins. Knowledge of these spread not only in Christian countries: in some cases these creatures were also included in the last pagan worldviews in northern Europe. It is suggested here that mythological animals, manifested in the form of staffs, allegorically denoted ideological and moral qualities, and were most likely used as symbols of certain ruling families across the Eastern Baltic.
End Matter
Index 211-213
University of Cambridge
Laerke Recht, archaeologist, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge (Affiliated Scholar, former Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow). Her main interests include human-animal relations, gender, religion and iconography, with a focus on the Bronze Age Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw
Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska, archaeologist, Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Her main fields of interest are the Cypriot and Greek Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeology, with special reference to cult and religion. Her recent research concerns birds in Prehistoric Cyprus.
Professor Louis Nebelsick, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw
