New research on Near Eastern depictions of the ibex point to the animal's role as a fertility symbol.
The ibex is far from a humble mountain goat -- it's one of history's most enduring artistic symbols. So prolific is its presence in prehistoric art, in fact, that a new study suggests the animal held potent symbolism for ancient peoples.
Domesticated some 10,000 years ago, the ibex is a species of wild goat with a footprint that spans Europe, Asia, and northeastern Africa. Matching that is the multitude of depictions of ibexes across cave art, pottery, seals, jewelry, and tattoos dating back as early as the Neolithic Age. These illustrations range from carvings on seals from the Harappan civilization, to etchings in the Chauvet cave in France, to sculpted Ptolemaic jewelry.
A new study, published in the journal L'Antropologie, turns the spotlight on prehistoric portrayals of ibexes in the Near East. It is in that region where archaeologists have uncovered ibex images on rock art in the Central Asia mountains, and on metals and pottery found in the Iranian plateau.
To decode the symbolism of the ibex, researchers looked to European portrayals, which often placed the animal alongside women and markings that may reference calendar or lunar cycles. In particular, the rock art panel known as Mother Ranaldi, found in Italy, paired ibexes and deer with images that have been interpreted as women in labor. Another carving known as the Venus of Laussel, found in Dordogne, France, sees a woman clutching a horn, likely of a bison or ibex; she is drawn with exaggerated, Venus-esque hips and breasts, which are often linked to fertility.
The motif of fertility similarly emerges in the Near Eastern depictions of ibexes. The study pointed to an eastern Iran bronze plaque from 1500 B.C.E.-700 B.C.E. which shows two ibexes surrounding a woman giving birth -- a scene that echoes the earlier Mother Rinaldi. Images of goats and deer also appear on female mummies from the Achaemenid Empire (5th-4th centuries B.C.E.), lending credence to the idea of the ibex as a feminine symbol.
Elsewhere, ibexes are pictured alongside Enki, the Sumerian god of water also known as the creator of the life-giving Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The researchers argue that because the rainy season in Mesopotamia overlaps with the ibex's mating season, its behavior could have served a timekeeping role as well.
What's more, other Near Eastern depictions of the ibex strongly link it with the moon and other celestial bodies. Pottery found at sites including Tall-i-Bakun, Tape Hissar, and Susa in Iran hold engravings of the goat with sun, stars, and crosses. Sumerian writings, further, refer to the ibex as si-mul, meaning "star-horned" or "bright-horned."
Quite likely, the paper suggested, ancient civilizations believed the animal was related to the stars, as its natural habitat is in the mountains, close to the sky.
"From a spiritual aspect, this animal is deeply rooted in the human collective unconscious mind from the Paleolithic period to the present," the researchers wrote. "Its importance varies across different cultural groups and periods, offering a rich capacity for interpretation."