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Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3)
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Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3)

A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 33972

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Branko F. van Oppen de Ruiter

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Ancient History, University of Groningen, 9700 AS Groningen, The Netherlands
2. Allard Pierson Museum, University of Amsterdam, 1012 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Interests: Ptolemaic history; Hellenistic queenship; iconography; ideology; syncretistic religion; animals in antiquity; museum archaeology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chiara Cavallo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Interests: zooarchaeology; human–animal relations; animal remains; archaeology; Romanization; subsistence strategies; ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ever since the Neolithic domestication, animals have been part of everyday human life, imagination, and religion. In antiquity, many human pursuits, from plowing the field to fighting on the battlefield, from the consumption of food to sacrificing to the gods, were shaped by, and relied upon, a symbiotic or interdependent relationship with animals. Animals were hunted or tamed, kept for entertainment or even worshipped. Material culture provides important evidence as representations and illustrations, expressions and mediations of ancient ideas and attitudes about, as well as experiences and interactions with, the animal world which surrounded them. Iconographic representations may, for instance, reflect social status as much as religious practices. Such imagery can offer visual clues for the dissemination of animal husbandry, as well as for beliefs in mythic creatures.

The theme of this Special Issue, “Animals in Ancient Material Cultures”, broadly includes the Mediterranean world and the Near East, from ca. 10,000 bce to 500 ce (although exceptions in period or region may be considered). Approaching this subject from a broad chronological and geographical perspective allows the contributors to focus on a specific region, period, animal, and/or creature. Papers may draw on archaeological, physical, visual, and/or cultural material to examine the dispersal and exchange, appropriation, and acculturation of practices and beliefs. This Special Issue aims to bring together specialists from different fields of expertise, including but not limited to art history, ancient history, classics, classical archaeology, and zooarchaeology.

After the successful run of the first two volumes—the first dedicated to conference papers associated with panels at the University of Edinburgh and the Allard Pierson Museum—this third volume again welcomes submissions on the subject Animals in Ancient Material Cultures. To reiterate, while the focus is on the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, excursions to other periods or regions will be considered, but an art historical aspect is expected. Articles may be anywhere in size between 5000 and 25,000 words in length, and should be submitted before 30 June 2022.

Dr. Branko F. van Oppen de Ruiter
Dr. Chiara Cavallo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animals
  • antiquity
  • material culture
  • animal–human relations
  • iconography
  • art history
  • ancient history
  • classics
  • zooarchaeology
  • archaeology

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 6712 KiB  
Article
Taking the Deer by the Antlers: Deer in Material Culture in the Balkan Neolithic
by Selena Vitezović
Arts 2024, 13(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13020064 - 30 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1353
Abstract
Prehistoric communities had strong ties with the animal world that surrounded them—animals were prey, sources of food, and raw materials, but also threats and mysteries, and certain animals often had an important place in the symbolic realm. With the process of domestication and [...] Read more.
Prehistoric communities had strong ties with the animal world that surrounded them—animals were prey, sources of food, and raw materials, but also threats and mysteries, and certain animals often had an important place in the symbolic realm. With the process of domestication and the switch to animal husbandry as the main source of animal food, these relations changed considerably, and a certain dichotomy between “the domestic” and “the wild” may be noted in numerous past communities. When it comes to the Neolithic period in the Balkans, domestic animals had an important place in subsistence and economy, and it seems that cattle had a particularly prominent symbolic role. Wild species preserved some of their significance in both subsistence and symbolic realms, especially cervids (red deer, roe deer, and fallow deer). In this paper, the place of deer in the material culture of the Neolithic communities in the Balkans will be analysed: skeletal elements of deer were used for the production of diverse items, including non-utilitarian ones, or were part of ritual depositions, and deer representations are encountered in other materials, such as clay figurines. The symbolic meaning of deer cannot be reconstructed with certainty; however, it is probable that deer were tied with territoriality and the landscape. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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27 pages, 2922 KiB  
Article
Potnia’s Participants: Considering the Gala, Assinnu, and Kurgarrû in an Aegean Context
by Marie N. Pareja
Arts 2024, 13(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13010020 - 24 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1677
Abstract
The wall paintings from the site of Akrotiri, Thera, are often considered to be instrumental to understanding elements of life in the Bronze Age. This is partially due to their high degree of preservation. The large-scale detail present in the scenes allows for [...] Read more.
The wall paintings from the site of Akrotiri, Thera, are often considered to be instrumental to understanding elements of life in the Bronze Age. This is partially due to their high degree of preservation. The large-scale detail present in the scenes allows for a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the imagery that survives in glyptic art that, considered together with the surviving wall paintings, helps to better inform one’s understanding of Aegean life. Many of the iconographic elements and themes, however, remain at least partially enigmatic. This is particularly the case for Xeste 3, a cultic building at Akortiri, where the wall paintings contribute to a larger, programmatic cultic narrative. The current investigation seeks to better understand the monkeys scene from Room 2 of the first floor by deconstructing and examining each visual element via comparative analyses. They are first contextualized within the Aegean, then considered in light of Mesopotamian comparanda. This method allows for possible parallels between the monkeys from Xeste 3 and at least three priestly classes known from contemporary Mesopotamian tradition: the gala, assinnu, and kurgarrû. Each of these priestly classes belonged to the adaptable and widespread cult of Inanna, one of the most powerful and popular deities in Mesopotamia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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30 pages, 10272 KiB  
Article
Realism as a Representational Strategy in Depictions of Horses in Ancient Greek and Egyptian Art: How Purpose Influences Appearance
by Lonneke Delpeut and Carolyn Willekes
Arts 2023, 12(2), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020057 - 15 Mar 2023
Viewed by 3424
Abstract
When modern (Western) viewers look at ancient art, the first feature of the image that is often assessed is its relationship to ‘reality’. How ‘real’ the image looks is inextricably linked to its evaluation and therefore the viewer’s estimation of its quality. The [...] Read more.
When modern (Western) viewers look at ancient art, the first feature of the image that is often assessed is its relationship to ‘reality’. How ‘real’ the image looks is inextricably linked to its evaluation and therefore the viewer’s estimation of its quality. The more ‘realistic’ an image is deemed, the more it is appreciated for its historic and aesthetic value. This fixation on reality has often affected the assessment of ancient imagery. It can create a bias that limits the researcher’s ability to analyse and interpret the image(s) to their full potential. When studying ancient images, the viewer should always keep in mind its original purpose. Rather than looking for reality through the notion of resemblance, the degree of reality should instead be assessed through the way the subject is being conveyed as the image’s purpose dictates its appearance. This article will use depictions of the horse in ancient Egyptian and Greek art to highlight some of the challenges one encounters when studying ancient images’ relationship with reality. It will show why it is important for scholars to focus on the image/object’s purpose, their resemblance to their subject, and their meaning in terms of the message(s) they are meant to convey. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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39 pages, 8999 KiB  
Article
Predators and Prey: Cosmological Perspectivism in Scythian Animal Style Art
by Benjamin Sharkey
Arts 2022, 11(6), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11060120 - 28 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5852
Abstract
The Scythians, nomads who roamed between the Pontic steppe and the Altai mountains throughout the 7th to 3rd centuries BC, are well known for their iconic animal style art. Composed of vivid stylised representations of animals, but depicting few humans, this art poses [...] Read more.
The Scythians, nomads who roamed between the Pontic steppe and the Altai mountains throughout the 7th to 3rd centuries BC, are well known for their iconic animal style art. Composed of vivid stylised representations of animals, but depicting few humans, this art poses a challenge to interpretation. The Scythians left no written sources to give insight on their beliefs, and scholars have often had to make recourse to non-nomadic Greek and Persian sources, but these sources are not without their issues. In this paper I will propose the anthropological concept of cosmological perspectivism, first developed by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, as a new way through which to think about and develop a better understanding of what Scythians thought and believed about the animal subjects of their art. I will explore the importance of predators, prey, and the contest between them in both perspectivism and Scythian art, and demonstrate how perspectivism might help us approach these works. Turning to a number of objects that combine Hellenistic and Scythian styles, I will examine how they support a perspectivist reading and explore what they can tell us about how the Scythians thought about animals and how they used them to represent human stories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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16 pages, 4787 KiB  
Article
Curated Desertscapes in Ancient Egyptian Tombs and Investigating Iconographies of the Wild
by Jennifer Miyuki Babcock
Arts 2022, 11(3), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11030059 - 26 May 2022
Viewed by 5122
Abstract
Because of a long-standing bias toward examining human representation in Egyptian art, scholars have overlooked many details of how wild animals are rendered, at least until recently. Usually, the stylistic differences between animals and humans in ancient Egyptian art are emphasized to support [...] Read more.
Because of a long-standing bias toward examining human representation in Egyptian art, scholars have overlooked many details of how wild animals are rendered, at least until recently. Usually, the stylistic differences between animals and humans in ancient Egyptian art are emphasized to support the argument that animals and their environs encapsulate ancient Egyptian ideas of “chaos”, while humans and their cultivated world encapsulate “order”. A closer look at animal representations shows that the same artistic restraints were placed on both human and animal representation, such as with the use of the canon of proportions, strict register lines, and iconicity. This article examines predynastic and early dynastic material and surveys representations of desert animals from Egyptian tombs from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom to demonstrate that their artistic treatment is still rule-bound and conforms to a sense of visual order. This paper challenges some of the scholarly interpretations, which assert that dichotomous ideas of chaos and order were represented stylistically and iconographically. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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31 pages, 10408 KiB  
Article
Hedgehogs and Hedgehog-Head Boats in Ancient Egyptian Religion in the Late 3rd Millennium BCE
by Julia Clare Francis Hamilton
Arts 2022, 11(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11010031 - 08 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 9394
Abstract
Hedgehogs held a special place in ancient Egyptian life like many other desert- and marsh-dwelling animals. Their natural defensive qualities were admired by ancient Egyptians and their bodily parts, notably their hardened spines, were used as ingredients in medico-magical prescriptions. In tomb reliefs [...] Read more.
Hedgehogs held a special place in ancient Egyptian life like many other desert- and marsh-dwelling animals. Their natural defensive qualities were admired by ancient Egyptians and their bodily parts, notably their hardened spines, were used as ingredients in medico-magical prescriptions. In tomb reliefs of the late 3rd Millennium BCE, hedgehogs are represented being carried alive by offering bearers or as background participants in desert hunting scenes. In later periods of Egyptian history, rattles, small unguent vessels, and scaraboid amulets were made in their shape, all of which are presumed to have had apotropaic purposes. A particular votive object of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) is a palm-sized modelled boat with a prow in the shape of a hedgehog head, which has been discovered at sites throughout Egypt. A similar representation of this motif is the so-called ‘Henet’-boat (from the word ḥnt[j]) with a hedgehog head at the prow facing inwards, which is found in late Old Kingdom art. This article reassesses the role of hedgehogs as protective or apotropaic entities and their association with boats, considering how ancient Egyptians understood their ecology and their predation of snakes, scorpions, and similar stinging creatures. An updated list is provided of known representations of hedgehog-head boats, including petroglyphs and as yet unpublished examples from tombs at Giza and Saqqara. The meaning of the ancient Egyptian word ḥnt(j) is also rexamined in relation to the representation of riverine and marsh-water boats in Old Kingdom tombs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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14 pages, 3720 KiB  
Article
A Bronze Reliquary for an Ichneumon Dedicated to the Egyptian Goddess Wadjet
by Robert Steven Bianchi
Arts 2022, 11(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11010021 - 20 Jan 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4617
Abstract
This is a short introduction to the hieroglyphic nature of ancient Egyptian material culture and its polyvalence using a bronze statuette of a lioness-headed goddess in front of an obelisk (formerly in the Omar Pasha Sultan Collection) as a case study. Because the [...] Read more.
This is a short introduction to the hieroglyphic nature of ancient Egyptian material culture and its polyvalence using a bronze statuette of a lioness-headed goddess in front of an obelisk (formerly in the Omar Pasha Sultan Collection) as a case study. Because the lioness is not identified by an accompanying inscription, the essay demonstrates methods by which the identification and significance of the image can be unpacked. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals in Ancient Material Cultures (vol. 3))
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