Let us look at another pictorial category, animals. Animals form the most frequent subject matter, with some type of animal occurring on approximately three-quarters of the incised stones.42 The single most common animal is a bird, found on nearly half of the incised stones. Various poses appear, including birds at rest and in flight. Many consist of simple outline drawings, but in several cases great care was taken to depict internal details such as wing and tail feathers; noteworthy examples include 3, 5, 9a, 11, 16, 19, 20, 62, 66, 69, 72, 77, and 96.
Several different types of birds can be recognized. One that recurs regularly is a raptor, or bird of prey, easily recognized by its curved beak and talons, emphasizing the bird’s predatory nature. Depictions of the Gordion raptors fall into standard and repetitive patterns. The most common pose depicts the raptor in profile, sitting at rest with wings and tail folded and talons outstretched as if about to perch on something; good examples can be seen in 5, 8, 9, 11 right, 16 left and center, 19, 20 right, 26, 54, 69. Less commonly, a sitting raptor is shown with outstretched wings, e.g., 3, 11 left, 16 right, 20 left, 55.
In addition to the depictions of raptors, there are many depictions of tamer fowl, some of which may be domesticated birds. Examples include 59 and 82 left and center, pheasant-like fowl; 14, perhaps a sitting grouse; 41, 50, 71, perhaps also 2, birds that have the long neck, beak, and legs of a stork; 27 and 50, which look like sitting hens; 94, possibly also 92, a goose. Drawings 67 and 104 depict a bird with a distinctive high crest, perhaps a type of crane, and 82, 94 right, and 96 lower right show a bird with a long, elaborate folded tail; this too could be a crane, or perhaps a peacock. Other depictions of birds follow a set pattern that is not detailed enough to identify a distinct species. One is the undifferentiated bird in profile; this can be seen in 8, 11 right, 14 left, 65, 70. Others show the outstretched wing span of a bird in flight; note examples on 8, 46, 62, 72, 74, 77, 82 right, and 92. Here the emphasis is less on the individual species of bird and more on the appearance of the airborne bird as if seen from the vantage point of the human viewer below.
Virtually every bird is shown as an isolated entity, sketched independently and not interacting with other figures, human or animal, that appear in the same scene. In some instances several birds are shown in a row, e.g., 5, 11, 16, 20, 69, as if someone was experimenting with drawing various bird profiles. In 5 a human figure stands in the center with raptors on either side of him, but there is no interaction between them. Two interesting exceptions to this practice were noted above: 46 depicts a male standing with outstretched arms while birds fly around him, and 19, although more poorly preserved, appears to depict two raptors perched on an object which may be an outstretched human arm. Both of these may illustrate scenes of falconry, the first depicting a man twirling a lure to recall the raptor, while the second showing the raptors on the trainer’s arm.
The lion is the next most frequently represented animal, found on approximately 25% of the examples. The lions are presented in much more consistent fashion. All are shown in profile, as if striding forward.43 They are normally shown with open mouth; in a few cases sharp teeth are clearly visible (80, 102), and some have a long tongue hanging out (1, 7, 10, 38, 48 left, 53). Several lions are shown with prominent claws (4, 6, 29, 47, 53, 58); often these are unusually long and curved, more reminiscent of a bird’s talons than feline claws. The combination of teeth and claws serves to emphasize the animal’s ferocity. Some of the lions are done in simple outline, but several were provided with distinctive internal details, such as prominent shoulder muscles (6, 29, 48, 53, 98, 102), a wrinkled muzzle (1, 45, 48, 80, 99), a neck ruff that can appear almost like a collar (1, 4, 6, 48, 53, 95, 99, 102), and a semicircular or angular mark indicating the cheek (1, 4, 6, 51). A few examples (10, 29, possibly also 98) show the full mane of the adult male lion. On one stone, 80, a particularly well preserved pair of lions have carefully detailed faces on which the face whiskers are clearly visible. Where the gender of the animal can be determined, all the lions are male, with one prominent exception, 85, a nursing lioness whose teats are clearly shown.
The method of drawing the Gordion lions falls into a repetitive pattern, as if the drawing were following a standard model. The animal’s nose and the curve of its head and back were drawn first, then legs were added, and finally internal details. This can be demonstrated from examples where the inciser made multiple attempts at drawing, abandoning an incomplete form and then starting another similar form nearby. Note the double nose on 10, a double tail on 83, and the double lion’s back on 47 and 84.44
All of the lions on the Gordion incised stones appear as isolated figures, standing alone and not interacting with any other figure, human or animal. This is so even when more than one animal appears on the same stone. As noted above, there are several depictions of armed warriors, but no scene of a human figure hunting a lion appears among the incised drawings.
A variety of other animals also occurs, all appearing much less frequently than either a bird or a lion. Five stones depict horses (10, 12, 72, 82, 104), all shown in profile. In addition, there are two billygoats (10, 96), one stag (71), an animal that may be either an ibex or a type of wild cattle (72, 73, 100), an animal that may be a gazelle (75), and a hare (44), as well as a few quadrupeds either so poorly preserved or so sketchily drawn that their identity is uncertain, and at least one example of a fish (87). Several of the depictions record lively details: the billygoats have prominent horns and beards, one horse (72) is shown galloping with a striking mane and tail, the stag stretches its neck to display a fine set of antlers, and the ibex (or cattle) have impressive sets of horns. One animal drawing—the hare carried in a bag by a hunter (44)—forms part of a complex picture that suggests a narrative function (parallels for this scene will be discussed in Section 3), but the other examples depict the animal as an isolated figure, not interacting with a human figure or forming part of a complex scene.
I will return to a fuller consideration of the meaning of the animal drawings in Section 3, but, given the breadth and complexity of the examples, a few summary remarks are in order here. Taken together, the depictions of animals reveal an intriguing mixture of animal forms that follow a prescribed pattern and animals with individual features that show close observation of nature. The drawings of the lions are the most formulaic: