Figurines are a ubiquitous class of archaeological artifact. As a result, much has been written about them and, more importantly, what, if anything, they can tell us about the cultures that produced them. Anthropomorphic figurines, in particular, entice us with a promise of human self-awareness, encoding cognition in the modeling and representation of the human…

Fig. 1 Ba’al stela from Ugarit-Ras Shamra, H. 142 cm, c. 18th-15th c. BCE, Musee du Louvre, AO 15775 That Hannibal was a great strategist, unpredictable himself yet often able to predict his enemies’ actions, has been long appreciated. This is usually all one needs to know as an answer to why Hannibal crossed the…