Encountering Ancient Environments

Abstract

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.