Animal Bones and Animal Representations at Late Bronze Age Akrotiri

These testimonies can be supplemented by osteological evidence from other areas of Greece, as well as literary documentation from later periods, to give us a fuller picture of the relationship of the ancients to their environment.

Τό δή τών άνθρώπων γένος, ώ παίδες, έπικοινωνεί τοίς θεοίς τε καί τοίς άλόγοις ζώοις⁽¹⁾

Galen, Adhortatio ad artes addiscendas 9 (ed. C.G. Kühn, I, 21)

INTRODUCTION

In the entangled relationships between man and animal, which began in the context of the food chain, the animal through the ages has been for man a source of raw material for craft-industrial production, a source of inspiration for art (from the Late Palaeolithic onwards), a companion in everyday life (after the first stages of domestication) and a symbol with aesthetic, magical, religious and philosophical implications (Bodson 1978). Both osteological material and the testimony of literature and art - such as, in our case, the wall paintings at Akrotiri - reflect aspects of these manifold relationships.

Scholars who have studied the wall paintings of Thera⁽²⁾ have described in detail the animal world depicted in them, identified the species of animals (Marinatos 1974, 38-57; Morgan 1988, 41-67) and tried to incorporate them in their natural habitat (for example, bucolic scene, Nilotic landscape etc.). In parallel many scholars have produced synthetic studies, in which they have proceeded to interpret the representations, placing them in the general material cultural milieu (wall paintings, artistic expression on vases, sealstones, funerary monuments, bronze objects, reliefs, jewellery etc.) of the Aegean (including Crete, the Cyclades and the Mycenaean centres of southern Greece) and the eastern Mediterranean.⁽³⁾

ANIMAL BONES AND WALL PAINTINGS

The sample of osteological material that has been examined at Akrotiri is large enough for us to be confident that it reflects a genuine reality (Gamble 1978; 1980) (Table 1),⁽⁴⁾ while the iconographic programme of the wall paintings provides evidence concerning both the palaeoecology and the palaeoeconomy of the south-eastern Mediterranean.

1.        The palaeoecology of the south-eastern Mediterranean

The reconstruction of the environment is based on the fact that each animal lives in a particular habitat,and should take account of all of the fauna in conjunction with palaeobotanical and sediment studies.

We have little evidence for the fauna of the palaeo-environment of the Cyclades. All we know is that these islands were not home to large wild mammals in the Bronze Age. There were only animals of the Leporidae⁽⁵⁾ and Mustelidae⁽⁶⁾ families (Figs. 1a-b) and small rodents, species that do not appear in the wall paintings. The last are abundant at Akrotiri,⁽⁷⁾probably belong to the Muridae family, and seem to have lived in packs in the ground floors and basements of the houses, destroying part of the stored cereals.

As far as the wall paintings are concerned, the characteristics of a habitat resembling that in Greece today are denoted only in very few cases. One case is the miniature frieze, in the hinterland on either side of City II (Doumas 1992, 47-48), where exclusively domesticated animals are depicted.⁽⁸⁾ With the exception of the domesticated animals, there is no absolute correspondence between the species represented in the osteological material and those seen in the iconographic programme. In other words, we have in the wall paintings environmental elements pertaining to the whole of the south-eastern Mediterranean and not exclusively to the Cyclades or Thera.

Let us look, for example, at the representation of the river near City III in the miniature frieze, in which there is a clear hint of a wetlands habitat outside the area of the Cyclades. Animals of the Felidae family (Doumas 1992, fig. 33; Pl. 2, 3-3.40 m.)⁽⁹⁾ and aquatic birds of the order Anseriformes, including species known from sites mainly in mainland Greece, live here. Although the feline originates from Egypt, both in its geographical distribution and as an iconographic theme (Fig. 2a), it is nevertheless possible that the Theran artist may have had the opportunity of observing corresponding species of the family in a less distant environment (Table 2).⁽¹⁰⁾

This also applies to the birds.⁽¹¹⁾ The presence of birds in the osteological material is negligible: in that collected from the West House and the House of the Ladies (from the foundations, inside the houses and the intervening area) only three fragments and one intact bone from birds about the size (approximately 30 cm.) of a partridge or a pigeon/dove were found, both native to the south Aegean.⁽¹²⁾ The swallow, possibly on account of its size (approximately 18 cm.) and the fact that its bones are fragile, has not been recorded at any site in Greece (Table 3).⁽¹³⁾

Of the mammals depicted in the wall-paintings, all - with the exception of the dolphin (Delphinus delphis),⁽¹⁴⁾ a pelagic species common throughout the Mediterranean - represent habitats outside the Cyclades.

     Sub-family Antilopinae.⁽¹⁵⁾ The antelope is not found at Aegean sites, though an exception is the presence of one antler of Alcelaphus buselaphus buselaphus in the Heraeum on Samos (Boessneck and von den Driesch 1981a; 1983).⁽¹⁶⁾ In the region of the Middle East during the upper Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene, there were not only antelope of the genus Alcelaphus, but also three species of the genus Gazella (Uerpmann 1981, 101; Tchernov 1981, 91; 1982, 122; 1993b). Antelopes and gazelles also live in North Africa (Fig. 2b). Thus here too, regardless of the iconographic rendering of the model (and the fragmentary condition of the wall paintings does not allow the taxonomic features to be determined easily), we have an allusion to a habitat outside the Aegean (cf. Bury 1967; Chaix 1994, 106). This is also true of the monkeys and/or baboons (Fig. 2c), notwithstanding the prevailing view that they might have been companions or pets of man at Akrotiri.⁽¹⁷⁾

     Species Panthera leo. When the species Panthera leo spelaea (Table 2) became extinct ca. 12,000 BP, it had already given way to the modern lion, which until historical times was native to Asia Minor, India, Iran and Europe. «Έτι δέ λέοντες μέν έν τή Λιβύη μάλλον, καί τής Εύρώπης έν τώ μεταξύ τόπω τού Άχελώου καί Νέσσου ποταμού» ("There are lions mainly in Libya, and in Europe in the region between the Acheloos and the Nessos rivers") (Aristotle, Historia animalium viii 606b,15).⁽¹⁸⁾ To date, lion bones have been identified in the osteological material from six sites in mainland and island Greece (Dikili Tash, Kastanas, Delphi, Kalapodi, Tiryns and Keos).⁽¹⁹⁾ The archaeological data confirm the literary testimonia, and both, combined with the animal's natural majesty, give us not only an understanding of the Mediterranean habitat but also an appreciation of the variety (in terms of thematic repertoire and models) and quantity of representations of the animal over the centuries.⁽²⁰⁾

     Family Cervidae: genus Dama, genus Cavus. The species fallow deer is depicted in the miniature frieze from the West House (Fig.3a). The same animal appears in wall paintings from Kea (Abramovitz 1980), Ayia Triada Room 14 (Evans 1928, 355, fig. 201), Pylos Hall 46 and Room 43 (Lang 1969, 40-43, 68, 205-207) and Tiryns (Rodenwaldt 1912, 96, pls. 11-14), as well as on sealstones from Pylos and Thebes, on pictorial pottery, on a gold cut-out of two fallow deer on a palm tree from Shaft Grave III at Mycenae, and on a finger ring from Shaft Grave IV (Morgan 1988, 57-59, 189).⁽²¹⁾ By contrast, the Cervidae bones at most of the prehistoric sites in the Cyclades (Akrotiri, Kephala, Ayia Irini, Phylakopi) are from red deer. Usually, these are the antlers (Figs. 3b-d). Only at Akrotiri have one metapodium fragment and one intact phalange been found. Despite this, we do not believe that deer lived in the Cyclades. What is more likely is that those parts of the animal that were useful as raw material for tool production, as well as the skins (hence the phalange), were brought to the islands from the neighbouring coasts of Euboea and the Peloponnese.⁽²²⁾ There is mention of fallow deer at Late Neolithic Saliagos (ca. 4500 BC).⁽²³⁾

Both species certainly exist on the Greek mainland. However, despite periodic fluctuations (such as an increase in fallow deer from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central and eastern Μacedonia) and the existence of regions in the north-east Aegean (e.g. Emborio on Chios, Thermi on Lesbos) where fallow deer are encountered exclusively,⁽²⁴⁾ red deer was the paramount wild animal hunted rhroughout the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

If we focus on these two species (leaving aside roe deer, which appears sporadically) we may observe that fallow deer has not been identified so far at any site in the Peloponnese (Franchthi cave, Ayios Dimitrios, Dendra, Kastria cave, Nichoria, Lema) from the end of the Pleistocene onwards. The exception is Tiryns, where twenty-six bones are recorded in a total of 1,049 remains of wild animals and 60,192 zooarchaeological remains overall (Table 4). On Euboea, in the Skoteini cave at Tharrounia and at Kaloyerovrisi, red deer predominates. In central Greece (in the Kitsos cave, the Corycian cave and later at the Cabeirion sanctuary), at some sites in Thessaly (for example, the early phases at Achilleion, and at Pefkakia Magoula),⁽²⁵⁾ in central and eastern Macedonia, and in Crete⁽²⁶⁾ it seems that both species occur.

In Epirus, possibly western Macedonia and at most sites in Thessaly only red deer is represented. By contrast, the Sporades (the early phases at Ayios Petros) and Rhodes seem to belong to that section of the eastern Aegean islands where only Dama dama (fallow deer) occurs. The detailed distribution of the fauna in the Aegean area might well help us not only in evaluating commercial relations and transactions but also in answering artistic questions (Table 4). It should be noted that Dama dama is also found in Asia Minor.⁽²⁷⁾ By contrast, in Cyprus and the Syro-Palestinian littoral Dama mesopotamica, which is not depicted in the Aegean representations, is the predominant species (Helmer 1991; 1994, 44-45 (north Syria and Sinjar); Boessneck 1992 (Hassek Höyük in the region of the Euphrates); Davis 1988 (Tel Yarmouth, south-west of Jerusalem); LaBianca and von den Driesch 1995 (Tell Hesban, Jordan valley); see also Zeuner 1963, 432; Tchernov 1982; Ducos 1981; Davis 1984 (Cyprus), with earlier bibliography.

2.        Palaeoeconomic evidence

The list of animal species helps us to form some idea of the diet of a settlement's inhabitants. After isolating those animals that were man's companions, such as Equidae in the Late Bronze Age (the dog probably still had dual status in this period),⁽²⁸⁾ or had strayed into the settlement accidentally, and with due regard to cut marks (from skinning, butchering and dismembering) and traces of burning etc., we are able to determine with some degree of certainty which animals were consumed. At the same time, we are able to appraise the importance of hunting, fishing and stock-raising in the economy of each settlement.

3.        Reconstructing everyday life

This is another issue that demands an interdisciplinary approach. Here, we shall touch on those questions bearing on the relations between man and animal at Akrotiri, and in direct connection with the palaeoeconomic evidence.

     A. Stock-raising.

The species of animal, the age of slaughter and the sex help us to understand man's management of domesticated animals.

At Akrotiri the bovines, caprines and ovines identified in the osteological material, as well as the corresponding animals illustrated in the wall paintings, are all domesticated. Of these animals, the one closest to its wild ancestor is the billy goat with large, upright, back-curved horns, leading the corresponding herd in the West House frieze. The morphology of this male animal closely resembles that of the αίγαγρος.

The existence of separate herds for each species of animal recalls the high level of animal husbandry known from the later Mycenaean and Homeric texts (Trantalidou 1990, 399). Indeed, all the evidence (texts, wall paintings and osteological material) supports the view that animals were stabled outside the town. An exception is provided by the existence of the skeleton of a pig (an animal whose depiction has not yet been ascertained in the Theran wall paintings) in a ground-floor room of Complex Delta at Akrotiri.

In all the other parts of the site, and especially in debris and under the houses, the remains of bones indicate that they are food residues. There is very little osteological material from the indoor areas, a phenomenon also observed in connection with the Early Bronze Age structures at Markiani on Amorgos (Trantalidou in press) and in the Early Bronze Age megaron-type building at Asomatos on Rhodes.

     Bovines. The wall paintings with the young animals in Building Beta do not give sufficient information to allow identification, but in the West House miniature frieze the long-horned Bos taurus is depicted. In the Late Bronze Age this sub-species was known in urban regions of both the southern Aegean⁽²⁹⁾ and the south-eastern Mediterranean.⁽³⁰⁾ There has been much discussion about Bos taurus, which is depicted in the palace at Knossos, in relation to the osteological material found at that site. It is well known that, whereas the wild form of bovine existed in mainland Greece, where there is also a theory of local domestication virtually contemporary with that of the centres of the Near East, there was no such species in Crete in the Pleistocene (Trantalidou 1996a, 100, 232-233). Nevertheless, in some excavations bones (mainly horns) of aurochs have been identified.⁽³¹⁾ It has been argued recently that the animals in the wall paintings are an intermediate form between wild and domesticated species, "large hybrids selectively bred for the 'bull games'" (Nobis 1990). Nevertheless, whatever the course of the biological evolution, in my opinion all the wall paintings depict domesticated animals, which were used for bull leaping on account of their lyre-shaped horns.

In all the osteological samples examined to date from Akrotiri, no frontal, or bregmatic bone or intact horn core, which would enable us to identify the sub-species of animal to which it belongs, has been found. However, from the bovine figurines found in the settlement (for example a Middle Cycladic bull or ox figurine (Doumas 1983, pl. 37),⁽³²⁾ a Late Cycladic rhyton in the shape of a complete bull (Doumas 1983, pl. 41) and a schematic zoomorphic figurine with bucranium (Marinatos 1971, pl. 283)) we glean information on the existence of at least three groups of animals, classified on the basis of horn form:⁽³³⁾ rather thick, short, horizontal horns turned slightly upwards at the ends; small, short, downturned horns; and thick, larger, upturned horns, with their tips bent towards the centre of the head. The first two types belong to the species Bos taurus brachyceros. It is not clear whether these two types represent differences in bulls of the same breed or whether they echo other selections in animal husbandry for the purpose of greater yield, which are also recorded in the horns. What is certain is that two sub-species of domesticated bovines existed in the eastern Mediterranean.⁽³⁴⁾

It is known from the osteological material at Akrotiri that the animals were slaughtered when adult. In these circumstances it is deduced that the animal was reared mainly for its milk and for ploughing the fields. Only when its performance began to wane and keeping it became unprofitable was it slaughtered.

     Ovines-caprines. It is clear from the osteological material that all the animals are domesticated. The goats have horn cores which are twisted outwards, the so-called prisca type, while the rams have long, massive horn cores twisted outwards, of the male copper sheep type (Fig. 4).⁽³⁵⁾

The animals of the families Bovidae and Suidae tend to be smaller in size than their counterparts from Neolithic settlements in the Greek mainland. Their size is comparable to that of animals in other island settlements (for example Knossos), but whereas the bovines are of similar size to those from other Bronze Age sites, the sheep and goats are only up to shoulder height of the smallest specimens encountered in mainland Greece. They were mainly slaughtered between two and two and a half years old. After the age of two and a half years they were kept for a short time for reproduction. In other words, herd management was directed towards maximising the qualitative and quantitative yield, while at the same time endeavouring to increase flock/herd size with the shortest possible period of tending by man.

The ovines in the miniature frieze have backward-curved horns and a thick fleece, which is why Marinatos (1974, 59) believed that they were wild barbary sheep (Amnotragus levria), a species native to North Africa.⁽³⁶⁾ Morgan (1988, 58-60), by contrast, noticed that the animals in the wall painting are domesticated, and proposed that their origin should be sought in the mouflon (O. orientalis, or acrording to the new taxonomy O. gmelini).⁽³⁷⁾

     B. Fishing

The list of species fished will enable us to determine the zones of exploitation of the marine environment by the inhabitants of Thera. The age of the fish, as recorded in the growth rings of the otoliths, will help us determine the preferred fishing season.

For the present we note that fish bones comprise a sizeable proportion of the osteological material collected and that, together with Neolithic Saliagos and the Mesolithic/Neolithic Cyclops's cave, Akrotiri is one of the sites with the greatest concentration of ichthyo-osteological material. Most of the sample from the West House consists of sections of the axial skeleton and especially vertebrae. Only in the ground floor of Room 6, where a vase containing bones of the family Sparidae was found, are virtually all parts of the skeleton present (Figs. 5a-c).

The fisherman in one of the wall paintings in Room 5 holds dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), and that in the other holds mackerel (Scomber scombrus) (Marinatos 1974; Gill 1985) or small-sized tunnies (Auxis rochei, Euthynnus alletteratus). Both species are migratory fish which come close to shore in April and May.

In general, it seems we have small and medium-sized fish, that is, weighing 20 to 500 g., a phenomenon which may well be associated with the fishing techniques employed (Rose 1995, 222-223; Powell 1996) or the availability of marine wealth during the period in question (Stratouli 1996).

Of interest at Akrotiri is the storing of fish for domestic consumption or for export (Rose 1995, 223), a familiar practice elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean.38

     C. The animal as raw material in craft-industrial production.

Bones, teeth, hides, fleece, horn and shell were frequently used as raw materials for making tools, clothing, works of art, etc..

The use of garments made from leather and from wool is obvious in the wall paintings (Morgan 1988, 93-100; Tzachili 1990). The interest lies in the species of animal used. Both the Linear B tablets (PY Ub 1316, 1318) and Homer inform us that cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and deer were used to produce all manner of garments, textile furnishings, etc. (Ventris and Chadwick 1973).⁽³⁹⁾ Often the kind of sheep from which the wool was obtained is specially commented on. It is generally believed that in the third millennium BC a wave of domesticated sheep with improved quality wool reached Europe (Bökönyi 1974, 169-171), perhaps reflected in the increased number of representations of sheep with the characteristic horns and shaggy fleece. The change in the profile of the age of slaughter from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age also corroborates this view. The number of adult animals increases arithmetically in the Bronze Age, because, by tending them to an older age, man could benefit from them.

     D. The animal as a symbol.

Animals with symbolic and/or decorative character appear in several instances in the Thera wall paintings: lions on the bows of the flagship and the sterns of the ships,⁽⁴⁰⁾ a bird on the bowsprit of a ship, doves on the bows of ships, insects on the bowsprit, dolphins on the bows, a snake model on the stern, etc..

The decoration of the ships is not simply aesthetic in character.⁽⁴¹⁾ The stern, the most important part of the ship where the rudder is situated, bears the emblem of the fleet. Frequently, the effigy of the divine protector of the ship was placed here.⁽⁴²⁾ Perhaps even in the Bronze Age the animals represented on the stern had powers analogous with those of the deities they may have symbolised,⁽⁴³⁾ or endowed the ship with qualities that the animals themselves possessed.⁽⁴⁴⁾

Other representations of animals, apart from those associated with the ships, are thought to have a symbolic character, including the adorant monkeys, the blue monkeys engaged in human activities (Doumas 1992, 128), the antelopes associated with rites of passage from childhood to adolescence (Doumas 1992, 110), or the presence of horns of consecration beside an altar(?) in Sector Alpha, or the presence of a πότνια θηρών (Mistress of Animals) (Doumas 1992, 131, fig. 122; Pl. 12).

CONCLUSIONS

As is well known, the Thera wall paintings are the culmination of a process going back many years. They are also a link in the chain of Aegean tradition which continued for many centuries afterwards in different forms, but always in the same spirit of man's relationship with nature. Is it by chance, for instance, that on the Archaic pottery of Chios and Rhodes the cervids depicted are all fallow deer (Lemos 1991, 28; Kardara 1963) (Fig. 6)?

Apart from their value as works of art and as testimony of commercial and other contacts with the south-eastern Mediterranean, and regardless of accuracy in rendering animal figures (some of which defy classification), the wall paintings reveal that both patron and artist knew the environment of this region well. They were literally 'citizens of this part of the world', with the cultural importance that this had and still has.

(1).     "The race of men, my children, has much in common with the gods and with the dumb beasts".  

(2).      Morgan (1988), Boulotis (1988; 1997), lmmerwahr (1990), Doumas (1992) and Televantou (1994) have summarised the extensive bibliography on the presence of animals. Televantou notes eighty-three animals or animal models in the wall painting from the West House.

(3).      Numerous scholars have dealt with the thematic cycles of the wall paintings and the appearance of animal representations in the art of Thera and the south Aegean. Among the more recent articles we might mention that of Vanschoonwinkel (1990), which includes a corpus of animal representations on the wall paintings and on pottery as well as earlier bibliography.

(4).      Gamble, who worked on all the material then collected, also noted the presence of two human bones. Although the material from the West House, which consists of 10,607 bones from inside the house and the debris level below, gives different percentages, largely because of improved methods of excavation and differentiation of levels, it does not appreciably alter the existing picture (Trantalidou 1990, 400).

(5).      The hare (Lepus europaeus) occurs as a low percentage of the osteological total on all the Cycladic islands, for example the Early Bronze Age settlements of Skarkos on Ios and Markiani on Amorgos, at Akrotiri on Thera (personal observations), at Ayia Irini in the Middle Bronze Age period V (Coy 1986, 111), in the Mycenaean shrine at Phylakopi (Gamble 1985, 482), and probably at almost all Greek sites. Strangely, the presence of Oryctolagus is also noted in Phylakopi IV (ca. 1400-1100 BC) (Gamble 1982, 166). From data available to date, the rabbit is believed to have been restricted to the Iberian peninsula from the beginning of the Holocene until the second half of the first millennium BC, when it spread gradually in the Mediterranean. It was domesticated in the Middle Ages (Zeuner 1963, 410; Hemmer 1990, 75). Possibly, the bone is a later intrusion, brought about by this creature's habit of burrowing.

(6).      Fragments of bones of the Mustelidae family were found at Markiani on Amorgos, in Early Bronze Age levels in which the pottery sequence is disturbed. Beech marten (Martes foina) was identified in phases III and IV at Phylakopi on Melos (Gamble 1982, 166) and in period V at Ayia Irini on Keos. The Mustelidae family enjoys a wide distribution in Greece. Leporidae and Mustelidae were most probably introduced to the islands by man, for different reasons. They are not present among the faunal remains from Saliagos.  

(7).      This conclusion is based on the discovery of rodent bones, with all parts of the skeleton and all ages represented, in soil samples from on and below the floors of the buildings. In some cases, we have whole skeletons from the same animal. Some of these mice with limited range of movement are considered household animals. This material was collected as a result of water-sieving supervised by Dr A. Sarpaki.

(8).      To be precise, this is a depiction which reflects the development of stock-raising in the whole of Greece during the Bronze Age.

(9).      This is a free elaboration of a felid. The size of its limbs do not correspond to any known species. According to Morgan (1988, 41-44), it is a depiction of Felis serval, which nowadays lives in the central African savanna. Other scholars believe that it is a depiction of a panther (Felis pardus), even though this creature, although part of the Pleistocene fauna, is not found at Greek sites in the Holocene (cf. Aristotle, Historia animalium viii 606b,15: παρδάλεις δ' έν τή Άσία, έν δέ τή Εύρώπη ού γίνονται -  "leopards, on the other hand, occur in Asia and not in Europe"). This is despite its appearance in Greek art in which it is always stylised, for example in a mosaic with a representation of Dionysos mounted on a panther from Delos, dating to the second half of the second century BC (Bruneau and Ducat 1983).

(10).      The lynx (Lynx lynx) is known in southern Greece in the Pleistocene and Holocene. The European species of wild cat (Felis silvestris), known from Pleistocene sites, has been noted in Thrace, Macedonia and the Peloponnese. It is mentioned as a domesticate at the Late Geometric site of Kastro at Kavousi in Crete (Klipper and Snyder 1991, 180). In the nineteenth century, the Expédition scientifique de Morée noted that, while the wild cat, Felis silvestris, was a very common species in the Peloponnese, the lynx and jackal were rare (de Heldreich 1878, 113). It should be noted that a wild cat, Felis silvestris cretensis, still lives in Crete. "Its coat colour and marking patterns fall in the middle of the range silvestris/libyca phenotypes" (Ragni et al. 1999).

Fouqué's (1879, 114) description of the discovery of cat bones in the excavations at Akrotiri has not been confirmed by the osteological material from the site.

(11).      It should be noted that the same waterfowl, Anas platyrhynchos, is also found in wall paintings from Xeste 3, including those on the jewellery of a female figure, which Harte (this volume) considers to be cormorants. However, this adds nothing to our argument, except insofar as the frequency of the species is concerned. The sub-families Anatinae and Anserinae occur in mainland Greece, in Macedonia, Thessaly and the Peloponnese, on shores with reed beds, marshes or rivers. The most widespread species is the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). The greylag goose, Anser anser, is found at the sites of Sitagroi, Kastanas, Argissa Magoula, Ayia Sophia Magoula, Pefkakia Magoula, Lerna and Tiryns. Less widely distributed (so far found only in Macedonia) were species such as Anser fabalis, Anser albifrons and Anser erythropus. The species Anas penelope, Anas querquedula and Anser albifrons are also represented in the Pleistocene fauna of Crete (Lax and Strasser 1992, 206). For the presence of Anseriformes in the Middle East, see Tchernov 1993a, 222.

(12).     Partridges and pigeons/doves occur in levels at the sites of Ayia Sophia Magoula, Dimini, Kalythies, Kitsos, Lerna, Tiryns, Kavousi, Kommos (Reese 1995, 195) and Ayia lrini. Cf. also the wall painting with the partridges in the Caravanserai at Knossos (Davis 1990, 219). On the depiction of birds in Minoan art, see Masseti 1997.

(13).     On the depictions of the swallow, see Hollinshead 1989 and Harte this volume. As far as the osteological material is concerned, however, birds in general occur at very low levels at mainland sites between the Neolithic and the Geometric period. The following sites are exceptions: Kastanas (twenty-nine species), Pefkakia, Lerna, Tiryns, Kitsos cave and the Kalythies cave on Rhodes, where an average of twenty species of avifauna has been found at each site.

The numerically largest assemblage of recorded bird bones is from Mesolithic/Aceramic Neolithic and Early Neolithic levels in the Cyclops's cave at Youra (over 8,000 bones). Here, shearwaters and cormorants predominate, species also known from the sites of Ayios Petros (Early Neolithic: Schwartz 1985, 155), Kalythies on Rhodes (Neolithic, Classical and Roman periods: Halstead and Jones 1987, 137-138), Kitsos cave (Neolithic habitation levels and historical periods: Mourer-Chauviré 1981) and Pefkakia. Great bustard is also present.

(14).     There are two instances of marine mammals, possibly beached whales, having been found, in the Neolithic settlement on Saliagos (two vertebrae) and at Ayia lrini period V (one bone) (Renfrew, Greenwood and Whitehead 1968, 119).

On the very popular motif of dolphins on pottery and wall paintings during LC I, see lmmerwahr 1990 and Vanschoonwinkel 1990, 341-343. The dolphin, symbol of the watery element, was widely used by all maritime peoples in ancient Greece and the Aegean, usually in a more schematic form than that in which it appears on the miniature frieze, where we have, in my opinion, one of the most realistic renderings of the species. Despite the many centuries which divide them, Cretans, Cycladic islanders, Mycenaeans and Athenians all made use of this motif within the same tradition. It occurs, for example, on a Black Figure eye cup by the painter Exekias from Vulci, of ca. 530 BC (Munich Museum of Ancient Minor Art no. 2044), with a representation of Dionysos on a ship. On this cup, there are dolphins around the ship (the metamorphosed Tyrrhenian pirates, according to the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos) and as decoration on the ship's bows. The use of the dolphin, alone or together with other animals, was so widespread that in Hellenistic and Roman times it was adopted as a decorative element on furniture and vessels, a function facilitated by the flexible form of its body (Stefanidou-Tiveriou 1993, 144).

(15).     Other species of Bovidae, which belong to different genera, are characterised as antelopes. Thus the name antelope is attributed also to species of the genus Gazella. To the numerous hypotheses concerning the identity of the species on the wall paintings (whether antelope, gazelle or hybrid: see Vanschoonwinkel 1990, 329, with earlier bibliography and comparanda), we could add yet another: namely that the antelopes of the wall paintings display several affinities with the species Gazella dorcas, one of the smallest gazelles, which now lives in the deserts of North Africa. Even more numerous are the similarities to the species Gazella granti, which has the characteristic black outline on the rump, and which nowadays lives in the savannas of East Africa. R. Porter (1996) suggests that "the agrimi buck still remains the only truly firm choice among the possible candidates because of the near exact match of the black markings and the buck's ash-white winter color". However, there may be artistic liberties in their depiction, and I personally believe that the model was of the genus Gazella with mixed characteristics.

(16).     The sub-family Alcelaphinae includes antelopes that nowadays live in the African savannas. However, in the upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene the species Alcelaphus buselaphus had expanded all over the Nile region and the Middle East (Uerpmann 1981, 101; Tchernov 1981, 91). By contrast, the species Saiga tatarica lived in continental Greece during the Pleistocene period (Milojčić et al. 1965, 37-39 (right bank of the river Peneios); Koukouli-Chrysanthaki and Weisgerber 1996, 86 (Thasos ochre mine)).

(17).     "Live animals appear to have been brought to the Aegean"  (Warren 1995). Nevertheless, monkey bones are not reported from sites in the Aegean and the Middle East. As far as the frescoes are concerned, it seems that "blue monkeys" (Cercopithecus aethiops) are painted on the walls of Akrotiri and the palace of Knossos (Masseti 1980; in press).

(18).     Cf. also ibid. vi 579b,5: σπάνιον γάρ τό γένος τό τών λεόντων έστί καί ούκ έν πολλώ γίνεται τόπω, άλλά τής Εύρώπης άπάσης έν τώ μεταξύ τού Άχελώου καί τού Νέσσου ποταμού ("It is a fact that the lion is a scarce animal and it is not found in many places. In the whole of Europe it occurs only in the tract of country between the rivers Acheloos and Nessos"). Ξέρξης δέ καί ό πεζός στρατός έπορεύετο έκ τής Άκάνθου ΄τν μεσόγαιαν τάμνων τής όδού, βουλόμενος ές τής Θέρμην άπικέσθαι...Πορευομένω δέ ταύτη λέοντές οί έπεθήκαντο τήσι σιτοφόροισι κανήλοισι...Είσί δέ κατά ταύτα τά χωρία καί λέοντες πολλοί καί βόες άγριοι...Ούρος δέ τοίσι λέουσι έστί ό τε δι ΄Άβδήρων ΄ρέων ποταμός Νέστος καί ό δι ΄Άκαρνανίης ΄ρέων Άχελώος ούτε γάρ τό πρός τήν ήώ τού Νέστου ούδαμόθι πάσης τήν έμπροσθε Εύρώπης ίδοι τις άν λέοντα, ούτε πρός έσπέρης τού Άχελώου έν τή έπιλοίπω ήπείρω, άλλ΄έν τή μεταξύ τούτων τών ποταμών γίνονται ("But Xerxes and his land army marched from Acanthus by the straightest inland course, making for Therma...As Xerxes thus marched, lions attacked the camels that carried his provisions...There are many lions in these parts, and wild oxen...The boundary of the lions' country is the river Nessos that flows through Abdera and the river Acheloos that flows through Acarnania. Neither to the east of the Nessos anywhere in the nearer part of Europe, nor to the west of the Acheloos in the rest of the mainland, is any lion to be seen; but they are found in the country between those rivers") (Herodotus vii 124-126). See also Pausanias ii 3-9 and Pliny, Natural History viii 33.

(19).     Dikili Tash: one radius found in a Neolithic context. Kastanas: twelve bones found in five different habitation levels dating from 1200-800/700 BC, and particularly in the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Delphi: a lion's tooth found by Dr F. Poplin in recent sieving of earth. Keos: two teeth found in an LM IB/LH II context. Tiryns: six bones found in a Bronze Age context. Von den Driesch and Boessneck (1990) give bibliographical references for lion bones at Late Bronze Age Kalapodi in Boeotia, in the late Neolithic/Chalcolithic of the Carpathian basin, and in Eneolithic settlements in the environs of Odessa. At a recent workshop on European vertebrate fauna held in Berlin on the 6th-9th April 1998, Bartosiewicz (1999), Krakhmalnaya (1999: six sites dating from the Chalcolithic to Early Iron Age), Ninov (1999) and Žuravlëv (1999) largely confirm the evidence of the ancient sources and recent research.

(20).     The lion is represented in all artistic media: monumental painting, sculpture, architecture, vase painting, glyptic, jewellery, etc.. There is a reference to a lion chasing a deer in Odyssey iv.335-339.

(21).     In my opinion, fallow deer are also depicted in other representations, in which the species of animal is less clear: for example, the metal dagger National Archaeological Museum, Athens no. 394 (Xenaki-Sakellariou and Chatziliou 1989). However, the stylisation and distortion of dimensions preclude further comparisons.

(22).     In the publication of the Late Neolithic settlement of Kephala, Coy (1977, 132) maintains that antlers were obtained from Euboea, a plausible hypothesis since the species red deer predominated in the Peloponnese and Euboea. Gamble (1978, 752) considers that individual deer could have lived under controlled conditions on Santorini. There is one antler from Phylakopi II (Gamble 1982, 166).

(23).     No cervid is mentioned in the original publication. Its existence was noted later (Bökönyi 1971; 1986,90). Here, too, it was surely imported.

(24).     The increase in fallow deer in Macedonia from the end of the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age was observed by Bökönyi (1986), Becker (1986) and Yannouli (1989, 39; 1994; 1997). Yannouli attributes it mainly to climatic conditions (fall in sea level, drier climate) and to the exhaustion of living stocks of red deer. By contrast, at Dikili Tash in the Middle Neolithic and Late Neolithic to Early Bronze fallow deer is rare (Julien 1992, 147). At Kastanas, the fragments of fallow deer outnumber those of red deer throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. At Emborio on Chios, bones of fallow deer represent 10% of the total of bone fragments (Clutton-Brock 1982, 680).

(25).     Achilleion I-IV: red deer; I, II: fallow deer (see Bökönyi 1989, 316-317, 322). At Pefkakia Magoula 3,077 fragments of red deer bones and only one fallow deer were recorded, the latter in Middle Neolithic I (Hinz 1979, 151). Amberger (1979) mentions fallow deer bones from the same site.

(26).     In all cases the percentages are low. For further information on cervids in Greece, see Yannouli and Trantalidou 1999.

(27).     In the faunal remains at Çayönü in south-eastern Turkey (eighth millennium BC) only Cervus is identified (Lawrence 1982). At the site of Karatas-Semayük in the region of ancient Lycia in south-western Turkey (Early Bronze I-II), only Cervus elaphus is mentioned (Hesse and Perkins 1974, 149). In the aceramic Neolithic at Hacilar Dama dama is mentioned, while Cervus elaphus has been identified in the succeeding period and down to the Early Chalcolithic (Westley 1970). Finally, in the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age at Pekmez, and in the Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze Age at Ikiztepe in the province of Samsun, both species are mentioned (Crabtree and Monge 1986; Heidemann 1976; Tekkaya and Payne 1988), while both are also present in a sacrificial deposit at Zeytin Tepe in the region of ancient Miletus (Peters 1993, 93).

(28).     Numerous instances of eating dog are known from the Neolithic (Trantalidou 1996a, 100). The role of the dog as man's hunting companion and guardian of flocks and the house etc. was gradually upgraded. Even so, dog bones with cut marks occur in the Bronze Age (cf. the cut marks from skinning on dog remains from a Mycenaean chamber tomb at Galatas in the south-east Peloponnese: Hamilakis 1996, 158).

(29).     Numerous examples from the urban centres of Knossos, Ayia Triada, Tiryns, Mycenae and Orchomenos are cited by Morgan (1988, 57), Televantou (1994, 233) and Shaw (1996, 167-188). See also Younger 1995; Rehak 1995; and Hallager 1995. The bovine figurines seen in Cretan museums mainly display long horns.

(30).     Wall painting with bull leaping from Avaris in the Nile delta (Bietak 1996a, pls. IV, V; 1996b, 123-125; see also Morgan 1995, 34-38).

(31).     Some researchers have recorded the presence of both wild and domestic Bos. Until recently, all the references to the existence of Bos primigenius were from excavations conducted in the early twentieth century, at the Dictaean cave (Boyd-Dawkins 1902), Knossos (Keller 1909) and Tylissos (Hazzidakis 1912, 231-232). Nobis (1990), who re-examined the Knossos bones (deposit K 04) not long ago, reached the conclusion that aurochs, domestic cattle and hybrids between the two existed. According to M. Masseti (personal communication), the long-horned Podolic breed still exists in Italy and existed, without cross-breeding, until recently in Hungary. In Thessaly, there has recently been a practice of breeding bovines with a uniform coat colour, like the 'Camargue' species of southern France.

(32).     Corresponding figurines are known from other regions.

(33).     This evidence is presented with considerable reservations, since the majority of zoomorphic figurines, irrespective of period and site, are highly schematic. The morphology of the horns, the diameter of their base and their length etc. are among the most important criteria for classifying horned animals in species and groups.

(34).     We recall that at sites on the Greek mainland, for example at Early Neolithic Achilleion, there are domestic cattle which resemble the wild form of the species. Bökönyi (1986, 318) notes the existence of horn cores from the so-called primigenius type: "They are long and heavy, and only their comparatively thin and furrowed walls and somewhat smaller measurements distinguish them from the horn cores of the wild aurochs". The piebald hides of the bovines in the wall paintings leave no doubt as to their status (discussions with Dr D. Helmer and Dr M. Masseti).

(35).     This type of horn is described in Bökönyi 1986, 76-78.

(36).     For examples of these in excavated material from North Africa, see Higgs 1967.

(37).     On the geographical distribution of Ovis orientalis, see Ducos 1977; Ducos and Helmer 1981, 524; Davis 1984, 147-148. On the recent unification of the names Ovis orientalis and Ovis musinon in Ovis gmelini Blyth 1840, see Masseti 1996, 16.

(38).     Storage of fish is mentioned at the sites of Knossos, Ayios Stephanos and Kommos. The fish in the vase from the West House included species that are salted and stored at Akrotiri today, such as Pagrus pagrus, Dentex dentex and Sparus aurata and the families Gadidae, Maenidae, Pomacentridae and Scombridae. Serranidae and Sparidae are represented in the osteological material in the debris level.

(39).     Cf. also Odyssey xxi. 177-179: πάρ δέ τίθει δίφρον τε μέγαν καί κώας έπ΄αύτού (And set by it a great seat with a fleece upon it); and Odyssey xiv.518-519: ...τίθει δ΄άρα οί πυρός έγγύς εύνήν, έν δ΄όίων τε καί αίγών δέρματ΄έβαλλεν (...and placed a bed for him near the fire,and cast upon it skins of sheep and goats).

(40).     Animal forms are frequently associated with ships in the pictorial record of the Aegean. So far, over three hundred and fifty ship representations of Bronze Age to Hellenistic date have been recorded in a wide range of materials (clay, metal, stone, ivory and wood) and forms (vases, pinakes, sealstones, jewellery, coins, reliefs, paintings, rock carvings and models). The majority of these (some two-thirds) are from Cretan and, later, Athenian workshops (Marinatos 1933; Morrison and Williams 1968; Buchholz and Karageorghis 1973; Davaras 1984; Basch 1987). In the Early Bronze Age, the fish predominates as a ship emblem. In the Late Bronze Age, there is a wide variety of animal symbols (Televantou 1994). The ships of the Geometric period are recognisable by the horn which decorates them, those of the Archaic period by the boar's snout on the prow and the bird's head on the stern. Sometimes a bovine is also represented. The decoration becomes simplified in Classical and Hellenistic times.

(41).     Even the colour has magical propetties (cf. Herodotus iii 58; Roux 1949).

(42).     The idol protected the sailors on difficult campaigns (Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 239-276; Iphigeneia among the Taurians 1350-1351; Athenaeus v 205 d; Aristophanes, Acharnians 545 -577; Homeric Hymn to the Dioscuri 6-5; Ovid, Heroides xvi.112-114; Tristia i.10.1-2; i.4.7-8; Valerius Flaccus viii 203; Svoronos 1914, 98-120; Lonis 1979, 251). This custom presumably survived in other forms. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seamen used to place the icon of the patron saint on the stern (Karkavitsas 1899).  

(43).     The animals were sacred symbols, and to remove the stem of the ship (Herodotus viii 121; Athenaeus xii 49; Xenophon, Hellenica ii 3.8; vi 8.36; Polyaenus iv 6.9; v 41; Appian, Mithridatian wars iv 25; Diodorus xx 87; Plutarch, Themistocles 15; Alcibiades 32) and dedicate it in the sanctuary of a marine deity, as the Aeginetan trophy bearers did with the Samian ships (Herodotus iii 59), may have had several meanings. Certainly, the srern would have symbolised the whole ship, and its detachment would leave it without corresponding protection.

(44).     The ship was regarded as a living being. In the expedition of the Argonauts it was a protagonist in the drama (Orphic Argonautica 259-265; Apollonius Rhodius iv.552; Roux 1949). The ships of the Phaeacians had no rudder, but sailed of their own accord (Odyssey xiii.557). Perhaps this was why eyes were later painted on the prows of ships, to show them the way.

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