Snake

Perhaps the most striking image on these three prehistoric potsherds is that of the snake. Throughout time, culture, and regions, visual representations of snakes had either symbolic or religious meaning. The Arpachiyah snake motif was no exception. Out of the three pottery sherds, this snake was drawn rather accurately and is easy to identify. This is a comparatively early animal design within the Halaf Period which Professor Mallowan believes to represent a cobraMallowan, Max E.L., and J. Cruikshank Rose. Prehistoric Assyria: the Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah 1933. London [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1935. Print. pp. 164.

Professor Mallowan’s excavation project and his interpretation have a strong influence on how we view the world in the past and in the present. His work in early archaeology in Syria and Iraq also had a strong influence on his wife, Agatha Christie. The world famous novelist, Agatha Christie, wrote many mystery novels set in Western Asia. She herself also had a strong impact on the success of the Arpachiyah expedition. As Professor Mallowan’s wife, she joined his expedition to Syria and Iraq. The project managed a large group of people and produced an immense quantity of objects. Christie’s role in this has been much underappreciated and underacknowledged. Click on the longread below to learn more about Agatha Christie and other un(der)acknowledged archaeologists’ wives.

It is debatable how to interpret the snake on Halaf pottery ware. Some Halaf seals contain motifs of bird-quadruped-snake to represent the three-tiered cosmos system: sky-earth-underground Costello, Sarah Kielt. “Image, Memory and Ritual: Re-Viewing the Antecedents of Writing.” Cambridge archaeological journal 21.2 (2011). pp. 257. The upper level is the sky where spirits and flight-associated creatures, like birds, inhabit space. The intermediate level is where humans, and animals like bulls and cattle, live on the earth’s surface. The lower level represents the underworld, the cycle of life and death, where the snake lives. This belief system is found in some form or another in society with shamanistic traditions, including the Halaf culture Lewis-Williams, David. “Constructing a Cosmos.” Journal of Social Archaeology 4.1 (2004): 28–59. Web..

On the other hand, snakes could signify dangers due to their poisonous venom. Do you think the snake was a symbol of power or danger? Or could it have been part of the bigger system of cosmology in Neolithic Northern Mesopotamia?