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Document Details : Title: Bird of Prey as Bird of Power in Phrygian Anatolia Author(s): DERADA, Martina Journal: Ancient Near Eastern Studies Volume: 61 Date: 2024 Pages: 435-450 DOI: 10.2143/ANES.61.0.3294039 Abstract : The aim of this contribution is to better understand the impact of Phrygian traditions and cults on material culture by focusing on the representations of birds of prey, widely attested both as independent objects and as attributes of the goddess Matar. Birds of prey were surely part of central Anatolian everyday life in the Phrygian period; even better, they should have been related to important human activities since they ended up playing a big role in the iconographic milieu of these populations. Here, an overview of representations of birds of prey in Iron Age central Anatolia is offered, in order to explain the enormous iconographic success of this subject. What will emerge is the fact that the representations of raptors, in particular hawks and eagles, seem to have had a wide chronological spread but a very focused geographical concentration: they appear in Phrygian art from the mid-ninth century BCE and continue down to the sixth century BCE, with some possible later remnants. The article aims to offer some interpretative clues for their concentration in this period. |
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