Animal chapel

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The animal chapel is a group of motifs from the iconography of ancient oriental Mesopotamia . The representations show animals making music, some of which have human characteristics, such as an upright sitting posture when playing instruments or human hands.

Examples from the ancient Orient

The first evidence of animals making music can be found in the 3rd millennium BC. BC or the Elder- Early Dynastic Period in the locality Fara ( Šuruppak ). The illustration shows a figure very similar to a donkey playing a lyre . The foot of this lyre is worked out in the shape of a bull . Other objects that show such a representation also come from the early dynasty, from the site of Ur . The aforementioned representation also includes two other animals that make music with the donkey: a bear and a small animal with a long tail that holds a rattle in its hand. There are also numerous depictions of monkeys playing different instruments. A particularly common motif, from the Early Dynastic Period to the New Babylonian Period, is a monkey playing the flute .

For the 2nd millennium BC There are hardly any depictions of animals playing music. From the 1st millennium BC BC depictions of animal chapels are known from the Tell Halaf site, for example , where lions playing the lyre with their mouths opened are shown. These mouths can be interpreted as singing accompanying the game. The lions are shown in connection with other animals making music. They play the flute, drums and cymbals , for example .

Apart from Mesopotamia, there are depictions of animals making music in Elam in the 1st millennium BC. In the example found there, a lion plays a conical drum and other animals a harp and flutes. From Boğazköy in Anatolia is for the 2nd millennium BC. BC shows the representation of a sheep playing a drum .

Hybrid beings making music

In addition to the representations mentioned, there are also representations that show mixed creatures made of humans and animals. These representations can be found in Mesopotamia and Anatolia . An example, probably from Mardin in Anatolia, shows bird-headed lyre players.

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