[Images of animals in old cultures]

The author is an art historian, who travelled widely and who is fascinated by the animal portrayel by people of old cultures, sometimes stylized, other times monumentally or naturalistic. Often the figures demonstrate the position the animals held in society. Most of them fulfil functions useful to man: for hunting them, for supply of food and clothing, for riding, or for draught and packing. Sometimes they may be deified and considered as embodiment of natural forces. They are given then a sacral significance and become objects of devotion. The pictures presented here, stem from the old cultures of the Eurasian continent, dating from ten centuries B.C. until the Middle Ages. The objects are explained in their cultural context and meaning.