by Jan M.F. Van Reeth. — In French. Everywhere one could see a Lady appearing in Minoan times, traditionally interpreted, from the times of her discovery at the beginning of the 20th Century, as a Mother Goddess, Mistress of the Animals, graciously protecting crops, harvests, offspring and seasons. This book presents her in a very different way (details).
Marie-Cécile Bruwier, Wouter Claes and Arnaud Quertinmont (dir.). — Book in French. For the first time, the lithographic plates Jean-Jacques Rifaud (1786-1852) dedicated to Egypt are being published in their entirety. He aims to publish, on his own, a ‘Voyage en Égypte, en Nubie et lieux circonvoisins’ (Travel in Egypt and Nubia and surrounding places) to complement the well-known ‘Description de l’Égypte’ written by the many scholars and scientists of the French expedition. As in the ‘Description de l’Égypte’, the plates are related to Egyptian antiquities, natural history (botany and zoology) and ethnography… (Details)
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In the ancient Near East the animals are very often represented in art and are present mostly in temples but also in houses and in palaces. Wild animals are more frequently reproduced than domesticated. The most represented domesticated animals are those ones mentioned in the texts : first cattle and then goat, sheep, donkey/horse, dog. It’s difficult to establish which kind of animals Mesopotamians considered as domesticated : only those which had an usefulness for milk and meat, for transport, for war and hunting, for ploughing or also those which aroused friendly feelings ? Was there a feeling for animals like that we have today for pets ? In iconography, but chiefly in texts and in archaeozoologic data there are some elements which suggested that there was a feeling for at least some animals, mainly monkey, cattle, dog and horse.
In the second millennium BC, numerous sacrifices of animals were made in honour of the divinity Sun in Anatolia. During the sacrifices of pets, sheep, ox and pig are the most usually animals mentioned. By basing itself on a representative sample of extracts of texts, we shall put in relationship the world of the gods with the world of the Men. In this paper, we shall emphasize the fact that the animals which are a part of the current life of the Men are the ones also presented to the gods for the divine consumption.
Camel, almost as much as horse, had an important place in the Iranian world. This article, wich does not pretend to be exhaustive, seeks to present some of is major uses. It aims to deal with the issue of cross-breeding in the achaemenid Empire.
Pets are very present in the laws of the Hittites. After trying to approach the concept of pet, we shall see what sorts of pets are present in the laws of the Hittites, and what their function and status are. We shall also show that it is not only the point of view of the legislator that is represented in the laws : religion is never far away, the laws of human society being like those of the cosmos.
In this short contribution it is possible to find an aspect of the dog’s situation in Ancient Anatolia, especially in the limits of the Hittite civilization. Some aspects relating to the social position of this animal and the relations between the men and the dog were unknow.
Looking for the authenticity of the sacred one may find out that the first human’s gods could often take the animal form. Since the prehistoric times, human beings worshipped wild animals and represented them in art with care and precision. During the Antiquity, even the most anthropocentric streams of philosophy couldn’t impede the survival of these popular beliefs. Some peoples, like ancient Egyptians, developed a very sophisticated zoomorphic pantheon. Greece and Rome testified a high level of the animal symbolism in mythology and divination. As for the Asia Minor, according to the old traditions, the idea of the wild nature couldn’t be separated there from the perception of the realm of the gods. This paper gives an approach to some historical evidences of god’s metamorphoses into animals and tries to examine the origins of these beliefs in the ancient Mediterranean world.
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Some questions about pets in Lycia through iconographical documents and rare mentions in epichoric epigraphy. We focused on Dynastic times in Lycia and observed that representations of such animals may be issued from an Anatolian Tradition.
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Fauna is very well represented on Halafian ceramic production. Among it, domestic and wild animals are easily recognized.
Following Levi-Strauss’s point of view which highlighted that the « animals good to eat » are not the only ones « good to think », we will try to demonstrate that behind the picture, imagery, human activities and social orientations are reflected.
After a brief presentation of the halafian ceramic production, a comparitive study with zoological and archeozoological data and iconographic considerations, many observations will be proposed. Firstly, we will focus on the large variety of represented species. Secondly, the importance of the ceramic medium in the image diffusion will be considered. Lastly, the social implications of such a bestiary will be discuss.
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In Judaism, from the Torah until the later writings from Qumran and the Rabbinic literature, dogs are generally considered to be unclean, bad and fierce.
Despite the general negative connation, there are a few exceptional passages where dogs occupy a very positive position as creatures faithful to their masters and as guardians like in the apocryphal book of Tobit where the dog accompanies Tobias on his journey to Ekbatana. A similar role is assigned to the dog in the Midrash where Cain, having killed his brother Abel, is given a dog by God as a symbol of his protection.
In the Rabbinic tradition it is also written that the dogs stayed silent while the Israelites began to exit from Egypt, and the Talmud says that Jews should "tolerate" dogs.
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