Encountering Ancient Environments

The Impact of Nonhuman Animals on Populations of Hittite Anatolia

Bibliographic Data

ID4587557
AuthorsRomina Della Casa (0000-0001-5070-3757, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume85
Issue4
Pages258-269
Publication date2022-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNear Eastern Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1094-2076 • E-ISSN: 1557-5594
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/722488
OpenAlexW4311183604
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

This article surveys different textual genres from Hittite tablet collections of Hattusa (Boğazköy/Boğazkale) and Tapikka (Maşat Höyük) with the goal of exploring specific instances where one can detect human responses, strategies, and adaptations in the face of the active presence and behavior of ancient nonhuman animals (henceforth animals). The examples under study explore the animal side of human-animal encounters and involve locusts, wolves, pigs, dogs, donkeys, horses, sheep, and cattle. They reveal the existence of at least two main interrelated modes through which these animals impacted human behavior. One exhibits animal competition with humans for food, leading ancient Anatolian populations to devise strategies to minimize their impact on nearby resources. The other reflects that the behavior of certain animals encouraged practices of containment, regulation, mobility, and care, depicting, overall, key features of how animals shaped the daily life of ancient Anatolia’s human inhabitants

Ancient history · Biology · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Geography · Hittite language · Human animal · Livestock · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Philosophy · Ecology

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