Human–Animal Encounters on Early Iron Age Stamp Seals

Human-animal relations exist in encounters that range from confrontation and subjugation to harmonious coexistence. For thousands of years these encounters have triggered diverse associations that have materialized in visual languages that, despite spatial and chronological particularities, share scenes and protagonists (see, most recently, chapters in Recht and Tsouparopoulou 2021). The same animal can function in different roles on multiple levels, linked to its appearance and behavior or to an association in accordance with the ontology of the given society (Arnold and Counts 2010).