Terracotta Equid Figurines from Tell Arbid. New Evidence on Equids, Their Equipment and Exploitation in North Mesopotamia during Third and First Half of Second Millennium BC

Author: Maciej Makowski | Pages: 257–278

Abstract

Terracotta figurines are one of the few iconographical sources available for the study of equids, their breeding and exploitation in Northern Mesopotamia in the third and first half of the second millennium BC. However, the insights offered by this category of artifacts have largely been unrecognized by scholars, what is particularly conspicuous in the Khabur River basin, where equid figurines are very common finds. A detailed analysis of this type of figured documents, especially of the hitherto unpublished assemblage from Tell Arbid, shows that among details marked on the figurines were characteristics of the separate equid species, elements of their equipment and details pointing to certain breeding practices. What makes the equid figurines from the Khabur region even more interesting is the fact that that some of the details were not represented on Near Eastern equid depictions in other media (dorsal and shoulder stripes, strapping of genitalia), have been attested for much later periods (trappers) or have been known solely from written documents (saddle bags, marking of animals).

References

Bieliński P., Tell Arbid – the sixth campaign of excavations. Preliminary report, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XIII (Reports 2001), 2002

Cholidis N., Tiere und Tierförmige Gefäße auf Rädern – Gedanken zum Spielzeug im Alten Orient, Mitteilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft zu Berlin 121, 1989
Clutton-Brock J., A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals, Cambridge 19992
Clutton-Brock J., Ritual Burials of a Dog and Six Domestic Donkeys, [in:] D. Oates et al., Nagar in the third millennium BC, Excavations at Tell Brak 2, London-Cambridge 2001
Clutton-Brock J., Were the Donkeys at Tell Brak (Syria) Harnessed with a Bit?, [in:] M. Levine, C. Renfrew, K. Boyle (Eds), Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse, Cambridge 2001
Clutton-Brock J., Animals as domesticated. A world view through History, Michigan 2012

Debruyene M., G. Jans, V. van den Stede, Small Finds from the Acropolis (F Field), [in:] M. Lebeau, A. Suleiman (Eds), Tell Beydar, the 1995 to 1999 Seasons of Excavations. A Preliminary Report, Subartu X, Turnhout 2003
Dercksen J.G., Old Assyrian Institutions, PIHANS 98, Leiden 2004

Eidem J., Old Assyrian trade in Northern Syria. The Evidence from Tell Leilan, [in:] J.G. Dercksen (Eds), Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period, OAAS 3, PIHANS 111, Leiden 2008

Finkenbeiner U. et al., Tell el Abd, Vorläufi ger Bericht über die Grabungen 1992–1993, Damaszener Mitteilungen 8, 1995
Foxvog D., Sumerian Brands and Branding-Irons, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 85, 1995

Hauser R., Reading Figurines. Animal Representations in Terra Cotta from Royal Building AK at Urkesh (Tell Mozan), Aids and Research Tools in Ancient Near Eastern Studies 6, Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 28, Urkesh/Mozan Studies 5, Malibu 2007
Heinrich E. et al., Bericht über die von der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft mit Mitteln der Stiftung Volkswagenwerk im Euphrattal bei Aleppo begonnenen archäologischen Untersuchungen, erstattet von Mitgliedern der Expedition, Mitteilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft zu Berlin 101, 1969
Heinz C., Die Feldzugsdarstellungen des Neuen Reiches. Eine Bildanalyse, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie XVIII, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen
Institutes XVII, Wien 2001
Holland T., Goodway M., Roaf M., Archaeology of the Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Roman Remains at an Ancient Town on the Euphrat River, Excavations at Tell es-Sweyhat, Syria 2, Oriental Institute Publications 125, Chicago 2006
Hrouda B., Die Kulturgeschichte des assyrischen Flachbildes, Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 2, Bonn 1965

Jans G., Brettschneider J., Wagon and Chariot Representations in the Early Dynastic Glyptic, [in:] M. Lebeau (Ed.), About Subartu. Studies devoted to Upper Mesopotamia, Subartu IV/2, Turnhout 1998
Jans G., Brettschneider J., Seals and Sealings from Tell Beydar/Nabada (Seasons 1995–2001), A progress report, Beydar Monographs I, Subratu XXVII, Turnhout 2011

Janssen R., Janssen J., Egyptian household animals, Aylesbury 1989

Koliński R., Early Dynastic potter’s marks from Polish excavations in northern Syria, Berytus XLI, 1994
Koliński R., Adam Mickiewicz University excavations in Sector P at Tell Arbid (spring 2009), Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XXI (Research 2009), 2012

Lebeau M., Suleiman A., The City of the Early Jezirah IIIb Period, [in:] M. Lebeau et al., Tell Beydar / Nabada. An Early Bronze Age City in the Syrian Jezirah: 10 Years of Research (1992–2002), Documents d’Archéologie Syrienne VI, Damascus 2005
Levine M.A., Domestication and early history of the horse, [in:] D.S. Mills, S.M. McDonnell (Eds), The Domestic Horse: The Evolution, Development, and Management of its Behaviour, Cambridge 2005
Littauer M.A., Crouwel J.H., Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East, Handbuch der Orientalistik VII/I/2/B1, Leiden-Köln 1979
Littauer M.A., Crouwel J.H., The arliest evidence for metal bits, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 20, 2001
Littauer M.A., Crouwel J.H., Selected Writings on Chariots and Other Early Vehicles, Riding and Harness, Ed. P. Rauwling, Culture and history of the ancient Near East 6, Leiden 2002
Littauer M.A., Crouwel J.H., ‘The Trundholm horse’s trappings: a chamfrein?’ Reasons for doubting, Antiquity 65, 1991
de Maaijer R., Late Third Millennium Identifying Marks, [in:] W.H. v. Soldt et al. (Eds), Studies Presented to Klaas R. Veenhof on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, PIHANS 89, Leiden 2001

Makowski M., Anthropomorphic fi gurines of the third millennium BC from Tell Arbid. Preliminary report, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XVII (Reports 2005), 2007
Makowski M., Anthropomorphic fi gurines of the second millennium BC from Tell Arbid – preliminary report, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XXII (Research 2010), 2013
Mallowan M.E.L., The Excavations at Tall Chagar Bazar and an Archaeological Survey of the Habur Region, Second Campaign, 1936, Iraq IV/2, 1937
Matthews R., A Chiefdom on the Northern Plains Early Third-millennium Investigations: the Ninevite 5 Period, [in:] R. Matthews (Ed.), Exploring Upper Mesopotamia regional centre, 1994–1996, Excavations at Tell Brak 4, Cambridge-London 2003
McCarthy A., Figuring out Figurines: A Sealed Zoomorphic Clay Figurine from 3rd Millennium Tell Leilan, [in:] R. Matthews et al. (Eds), Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12 April–16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London, Vol. 1, Wiesbaden 2012
McDonald H., The Clay Objects, [in:] D. Oates et al., The Mitanni and Old Babylonian periods, Excavations at Tell Brak 1, London-Cambridge 1997
McDonald H., Third-millennium Clay Objects, [in:] D. Oates et al., Nagar in the third millennium BC, Excavations at Tell Brak 2, London-Cambridge 2001
McDonald H., N. Jackson, The Hill. Second-millennium Investigations: the Middle Bronze Age, [in:] R. Matthews (Eds), Exploring Upper Mesopotamia regional centre, 1994–1996, Excavations at Tell Brak 4, Cambridge-London 2003
McMahon A., The Material World:Objects from Areas A and G, [in:] A. McMahon et al., Once There Was a Place. Settlement Archaeology at Chagar Bazar, 1999–2002, London 2009
Moorey P.R.S., Clay models and overland mobility in Syria, c. 2350–1800 B.C., [in:] J.-W. Meyer, M. Nová k, A. Pruß (Eds), Beiträge zur Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, Winfried Orthmann gewidmet, Frankfurt a/Main 2001
Moorey P.R.S., Pictorial Evidence for the history of horse-riding in Iraq before the Kassite Period, Iraq XXXII, 1970

Oates J., Equid Figurines and ‘Chariot’ Models, [in:] D. Oates et al., Nagar in the third millennium BC, Excavations at Tell Brak 2, London-Cambridge 2001
Oates J., A Note on the Early Evidence for Horse and the Riding of Equids in Western Asia, [in:] M. Levine, C. Renfrew, K. Boyle (Eds), Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse, Cambridge 2001
Oates J., The Third-millennium Pottery, [in:] D. Oates et al., Nagar in the third millennium BC, Excavations at Tell Brak 2, London-Cambridge 2001
Owen D.I., The “First” Equestrian: An Ur III Glyptic Scene, Acta Sumerologica 13, 1991

Pecorella P.E. et al., Tell Barri / Kahat. La campagna del 2002. Relazione preliminare, Ricerche e materiali del vicino Oriente Antico 3, Firenze 2005
Postgate J.N., The equids of Sumer, Again, [in:] H. Uerpmann, R.H. Meadow (Eds), Equids in the Ancient World, Wiesbaden 1986
Pruß A., Link Ch., Zoomorphen Terrakotten, [in:] J.-W. Meyer et al., Die Kleinfunde von Tell Halawa A, Ausgrabungen in Halawa 2, Schriften zur vorderasiatische Archäologie 6, Saarbrücken 1994
Pruß A., Sallaberger W., Tierhaltung in Nabada / Tell Beydar und die Bilderwelt der Terrakotten als Spiegel von Wirtschaft und Umwelt, Archiv für Orientforschung 50 (2003/2004), 2004
Pruß A., Figurines and Model Vehicles, [in:] M. Lebeau (Ed.), Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean I. Jazirah, Turnhout 2011
Pruss A., rev. Hauser, Rick: Reading Figurines. Animal Representations in Terra Cotta from Royal Building AK. (Urkesh/Mozan Studies 5. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 28). Malibu: Undena Publications, 2007, xxviii, 625 S. 20,5 x 27,5 cm. ISBN 978-0-9798937-0-4. Preis $ 60,00., Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 102, 2012

Raccidi M., Chariot terracotta models from Tell Arbid, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XXI (Research 2009), 2012
Ritting D., Theriomorphen Figuren, [in:] E. Stromenger et al., Ausgrabungen in Tall Bi’a/Tuttul V: Altorientalische Kleinfunden, Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 126, Wiesbaden 2010

Sakal F., rev. Hauser, R. – Reading Figurines. Animal Representations in Terra Cotta from Royal Building AK. (Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, Vol. 28; Urkesh/Mozan Studies 5). Undena Publications, Malibu, 2007. (27,5 cm, XXVIII, 623). ISBN 978-0-9798937-0-4. $ 60.00., Bibliotheca orientalis LXIX/5–6, 2012, cols 639–644
Schneider-Ludorff H., Mit einem “Sonnensymbol” auf die Weide? Bemerkungen zu den Eigentumsmarkierungen von Tieren, [in:] D.I. Owen, G. Wilhelm (Eds), Studies on the Civiliation and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians 12, General Studies and Excavations at Nuzi 10/3, Bethesda, Md. 2002
Steele C. et al., Impact of Empire. Later Third-millennium Investigations: the Late Early Dynastic and Akkadian Periods, [in:] R. Matthews (Ed.), Exploring Upper Mesopotamia regional centre, 1994–1996, Excavations at Tell Brak 4, Cambridge-London 2003
Strommenger E., Bollweg J., Onager und Esel im alten Zentralvorderasien, [in:] H. Gasche, B. Hrouda (Eds), Collectanea Orientalia. Histoire, arts de l’espace et industrie de la terre. Études offertes en hommage à Agnès Spycket, Civilisations du Proche-Orient Serie 1, Archéologie et Environnement 3, Paris 1996

Veenhof K.R., Eidem J., Mesopotamia. The Old Assyrian Period, Orbis biblicus et orientalis 160/5, Fribourg-Göttingen 2008

Wissing A., Die Tonobjekte, [in:] A. Bianchi, A. Wissing, Die Kleinfunde. Ausgrabungen 1998–2001 in der Zentralen Oberstadt von Tall Mozan/Urkeš 2, Studien zur Urbanisierung Nordmesopotamiens Serie A, Wiesbaden 2009

Ziegler Ch., Die Terrakotten von Warka, Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka 6, Berlin 1962