Attitudes Towards Animals in Neolithic and Assyrian Times

Attitudes Towards Animals in Neolithic and Assyrian Times Animals have been viewed differently by different cultures. This is evident when comparing the wall painting of a deer hunt from the Neolithic period (Gardner, 38) and the reliefs of Ashurbanipal hunting lions and the dying lions from the Assyrian dominated period of the ancient near east (Gardner, 56). The deer hunt scene, painted at Catal Huyuk c. 5750 BC, depicts several humans hunting two large deer and one small …

…much effort on their part to hunt animals for food. Therefore, they respected them and used religion and magic to help with their hunt. The Assyrians, with their advanced technology, had basically conquered the animal kingdom. They were proud of this, and used art to show their dominance over animals as proof of their general dominance. Bibliography Tansey, Richard G. & Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Tenth Edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.