Ancient Animal Art

[browndresswithwhitedots]

Jerboa figurine ca. 1850–1640 B.C. Middle Kingdom, Egypt

[electronicgallery]

A beautiful Mesolithic amber figure of a bear. It washed up on a beach at Fanø in Denmark from a submerged Mesolithic settlement under the North Sea. 12,500-3,900 BCE, now on display at the National Museum of Denmark.

[peristasis]

Spring-fresco from Akrotiri (Thera) 16th century BCE as seen in the Heraklion Museum Athens

license source source source source

[gemsofgreece]

An owl (Athene noctua), the sacred bird of Goddess Athena || Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece. Photo by Stella Sapounakis.

[cafeinevitable-deactivated20220]

Beautifully-observed & realistic figure of a sleeping Antelope incised on rock up to 10,000 years ago at Tin Taghirt, Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria, one of the largest & most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world.

ph: Linus Wolf

[fromthedust]

Didrachm (reverse) - 8.6 grams silver - Eretria, Greece - 500-480 BCE 

Tetradrachm - 17.2 grams silver - Eretria, Greece - 500-490 BCE

Litra - .87 grams silver - Syracuse, Sicily - 460-450 BCE 

Socrates (Greek, 469–399 BCE) could have handled any of these coins and asked why they depicted an octopus — or what values they represented …

In the 5th century BCE the value of a litra was equivalent to the value of a pound of bronze, while the value of a didrachm (two drachmas) was considered to be about the value of two days wages for the average worker in antiquity.

The current (July 2020) value of bronze is $1.37 per pound, and value of silver is $206.51 per pound, or 45½ cents per gram. A pound is 453.592 grams.

[mostly-history]

The Hinds of Chaffaud, found in the Grotte de Chaffaud (Savigné, Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine).  It is from the Upper Paleolithic Period, made from a reindeer foot-bone, and is 13.2cm in length.

This engraving is of two hinds (female deer), with very precise details of the heads.  The almond-shaped left eye is emphasized with fine hatching.  A sign depicting a wing is engraved in front of the hooves of each hind, but its meaning is unknown.

[hedgewitchgarden]

Hecate, Athenian black-figure kylix C6th B.C., Museum der Universität Tübingen

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Apulian Frog Guttus, 4th century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Size: Diameter: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); Overall: 5.8 x 11.2 x 9.1 cm (2 5/16 x 4 7/16 x 3 9/16 in.) Medium: pottery with black slip and added white

https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.176

[ancientanimalart]

South Italian

oil flask

[tintinnabulums]

Alabastron (perfume vase) in the shape of a hare. c. 600 - 550 B.C.; terracotta. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[ancientanimalart]

Etruscan

[leona-florianova]

Went looking for more pictures of animal ceramics from the area of czech republic and let me tell you... i am not disappointed

From the area of Pilsen-Radčice, ceramic zoomorph vessel, hallstatt urnfield culture (800-560BC)

absolutely amazing

[met-asian]

Square Duck Pond, 1st–early 3rd century, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asian Art

Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1994 Size: H. 2 ¾ in. (7 cm); D. 12 in. (30.5 cm) Medium: Earthenware with green lead glaze

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44326

[ancientanimalart]

“Pottery models of houses and farm structures were commonly included in Eastern Han burials to provide for the afterlife.”

China

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Griffin Atop Entablature, 1-100, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Size: Overall: 37.2 x 44.1 cm (14 5/8 x 17 3/8 in.) Medium: fresco fragment

https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.20

[ancientanimalart]

Italy, Pompeii, Roman, 1st Century CE

[animalinterlace-deactivated2022]

[uncertaintimes]

Artist’s Sketch of a Swallow, New Kingdom, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. metmuseum.org

[aucelo]

Roman fresco. Pompeii, Casa del Bracciale d'Oro

[centuriespast]

A larnax, or chest, made to contain human remains, from Crete.

Credit…New York District Attorney’s Office