Spirited Horse, The: Equid–Human Relations in the Bronze Age Near East (Ancient Environments) - Softcover

Recht, Laerke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350274313 ISBN 13: 9781350274310

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

Synopsis

Presenting a new perspective on human–animal relations in the ancient Near East, this volume considers how we should understand equids (horses, donkeys, onagers and various hybrids) as animals that are social actors. Recht brings together a wealth of new data, including Bronze Age Near Eastern material culture from a range of archaeological contexts with equid remains as well as iconography and texts. She looks in particular at finds of equids themselves from burials, sacred space and settlements alongside associated artefacts such as chariots and harnesses. This is the first time the agency of animals is recognized. The study is essential reading for prehistorians, archaeologists and those studying early animal domestication, showcasing how humans encounter and interact with other animals, and how those animals in turn interact with humans. Recht outlines the broader implications for human involvement with their environment, both today and in the past, and points to further study in a number of focused appendices.

About this title

About the Authors

Laerke Recht is Professor of Early Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Graz, Austria. She has published and researched on human animal relations, religion, ceramics, and archaeological theory, including as author of Human Sacrifice: Archaeological Perspectives from around the World (2019), and as co-editor of Animal Iconography in the Archaeological Record: New Approaches, New Dimensions (2021).

Esther Eidinow is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol, UK. She is a series editor for the Bloomsbury series Ancient Environments, co-editor of Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience (2022) and author of Envy, Poison and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens (2016).

Katharina Lorenz is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Giessen, Germany. She is a series editor for the Bloomsbury series Ancient Environments, and, among many other publications, is author of Bilder machen Räume (2008) and Mythogical Images and their Interpretation (2016).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350274313
• ISBN 13: 9781350274310
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260