Of Men and Equids: Piecing the Clay Images from Tell Arbid Back Together

This paper aims at analyzing relations between different types of clay figurines and models found at Tell Arbid, a site in northern Mesopotamia, in the Khabur region. Starting with a presentation of a set of third millennium BC clay objects – including an equid and an anthropomorphic figurines, as well as a wheel model – the author discusses those figurines which were deliberately shaped to fit, or to be combined with, other objects. Analyzing them against the backdrop of analogies from Mesopotamian iconographic sources allowed for defining some functional associations between the representations of males, wheeled vehicles and/or equids. The hypothetically reconstructed sets seem to reproduce scenes well-known from other media. Based on these observations, it is possible better to understand and to interconnect phenomena characteristic for the clay plastic art not just of the site but of the whole region: predominance of equids, prevalence of male over female images and popularity of model vehicles.