Pages: 83-103 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp22283103

The analysis of bucranium found in the settlements of the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic of the Western Asia showed the following: the finds today can be fairly accurately identified by species and sex and dated within the span from the last centuries of the 11th millennium BC to 7600—6000 BC. The study of the context of the use of Bos Primigenius skulls/bones in rooms and with a certain set of accompanying osteological material confirmed the assumptions made by domestic and foreign researchers that bucranium and their individual parts can be considered as a way of presenting not only important symbols, but also individual ceremonies. Reconstructions of the symbolic content of the bucranium presented in literature do not address the question of how it was translated in practice in the process of ritual actions. It is, therefore, relevant to assume that bucraniums could have another possible (practical) function: they could be used as masks. Some important evidence of the working hypothesis is offered by the finds from Cyprus — headforms made from the skulls of bulls and plastic arts used in cult with the image of anthropomorphic figures wearing a similar type of mask. The treatment of bucranium as masks suggests how the object’s meaning is translated through its direct practical application in ritual actions, with symbolic and practical functions complementing each other.

Keywords: bucranium, Western Asia’s Neolithic cultures, bull’s masks, ritual in the cultures of the Ancient world, “revolution of symbols”

Information about author:

Sophia Zintchenko (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Arts. National Research University Higher School of Economics, School of History. Staraya Basmannaya St., 21/4, Moscow, 105066, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6670-679X