In Life and in Death: a study of human-animal relationships in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic

This thesis examines the role that animals played in the lives of people in the PrePottery Neolithic Levant (including Turkey). It investigates how the ways in which humans and animals interacted can provide insights into their changing relationships, and into how the people viewed and interacted with their perceived worlds, both natural and constructed. By looking at the place of animals in society, and then more specifically at their role within artistic and mortuary practices, we can come to a better understanding of how animals may have been used to both express and reflect changing roles and worldviews for the people. We can also gain insights into the societal changes of the time, and what it meant to be animal or human.