This chapter focuses on counterintuitive images and the mechanical arts. For much of their early prehistory, the relationship of composite figures, including animals, to humans was largely one of avoidance. They remained generally very rare and special kinds of animals, only occasionally seen, even by those few people who became experts in their patterns of behavior. All of this changed with the emergence of a new and complex type of ecology, around 6,000 years ago. Urban and state-like societies offered a setting in which composites could, for the first time, thrive and multiply in significant numbers, leaving a clear and striking taphonomic imprint on the archaeological record. The chapter examines the processes through which composites spread among different regions and the frequency with which they moved across cultural frontiers. It also considers the relationship between the limited counterintuitiveness of these images and their cultural catchiness by describing a recent discovery at Tiryns.