Environment and Ecology of Arpachiyah

The snake, leopard and bucrania painted pottery sherds were all found in Arpachiyah. Why those animals were specifically chosen to be represented, was as much a question in the beginning as it is now. Unfortunately, there is no in-depth record of all faunal remains found in Arpachiyah making it difficult to reconstruct the environment and faunal use by the people. However, there are other contemporary sites like Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria that give insight into what kind of species could have lived in the vicinity 7000 years ago.

One of the facts to note is that wild animals were rarely consumed during the Halaf Period, so it is hard to imagine Arpachiyah residents eating leopards or snakes Grimbergen, L. The social uses of animals in the Halaf Period: On the meanings of animal remains and animal representations. Leiden University, 2016. Unpublished. pp. 57. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/41878.. Interestingly, numerous wild and domestic animals were identified on Halaf fine wares, such as cattle, goat-sheep, gazelles, cervids, birds, leopards, markhor, blackbuck, onager, fish, snake, scorpions and unidentifiable mythical creatures Grimbergen, L. The social uses of animals in the Halaf Period: On the meanings of animal remains and animal representations. Leiden University, 2016. Unpublished. pp. 83.. Grimbergen sees these animals as depicting seasonal narratives, hunts, danger and potential taboos. The majority of zooarchaeological remains from this time period contain domestic animals and little wild animals. Therefore, using the case study of Tell Sabi Abyad, people rarely depended on hunting wild animals, but it could be a seasonal occurrence based on the depiction of Gazelles and migratory birds . Grimbergen, L. The social uses of animals in the Halaf Period: On the meanings of animal remains and animal representations. Leiden University, 2016. Unpublished. pp. 69.If archaeologists did new research into animal representation in Arpachiyah, do you think there would be a big change in the understanding of the site or more support for the original claims?