Folia archeologica 36.

Lovag Zsuzsa: Egy XI. századi bronz korpusz

EARLY MEDIEVAL AUROCHS 209 2. Drinking-horn, made from a large Bovid horn Medieval and early modern drinking-horns made from the horns of "wild ox" or "Aurochs" are generally regarded as material proof of the existence of Aurochs during periods.

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9 The data and dimensions of those Medieval and early modern drinking-horns which have been measured at all, are summarized in Table 5. Those horns used for this purpose are mounted with gold and silver rims, legs and statuettes. All of them have been shaped formed and worked. The bases of the horns — the mouth of the drinking-horns — are mostly wider than they were originally. Moreover, the two ends of the horns, their tips and bases are incurving to different degrees, thus the natural curve of the horns became distorted. In my opinion the original shape of the horns, i. e. their crescent shape with twisted (with double and triple spirals) forms remained unchanged even after mounting. Therefore the alterations required by the decoration of the horns did not change the original shapes characteristic of the species/varieties. Manufacturing thus could not make the horn of e. g. a wild animal similar to that of a domesticated one; of a Bos into that of a Bison or could not turn a twisted horn type into a crescent-shape. According to their forms/shapes drinking-horns can be divided into two groups: twisted (with double or triple spirals) and crescent-shapes (without a twist). Both forms can be both more opened and closed; both could be more elongated and arched. 2.1. Drinking-horns with a twisted from The biggest specimen of this type is a horn found at Sutton Hoo (Viking period). Unfortunately it is not an original and only a reconstruction of it is available. The dimensions, curvature and tarpe of the reconstracted horn are authentic. The groundplan of the ship-burial is in the form of a large and long horn so it might also have been copied from a Middle-Middle-North European aurochs.

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0 The Corpus Christi horn is made from a beautiful twisted horn of "Buffalo or wild ox"

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1; the Ribblesdale horn, with lightcoloured stripes is made from a "wild ox or buffalo from Gisburn Park".

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2 Moreover some other horns published by P. Stone without any dimensions belong to this category as well.

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3 1

9 Lengerken, H., Ur, Hausrind und Mensch. Wiss. Abh. 14 (1955) 156-., for further literature see here. Bökönyi, S., Trinkbecher aus Urhörnern in Ungarn. Säugetierkundliche Mitteilungen 4 (1956) 145—150.; Stone

, P., Some famous drinking-horns in Britain. Part I. Apollo (April, 1961) 102—104., Part II. Apollo (May, 1961) 143—145.; Axal—Nitsson, G., Lykkehornet ett norskt dryckeshorn fran 1300-talet. Viking 37 (1973) 29—48. 5

0 Stone, P., op. cit. (April, 1961) 102., Fig. 2.; Bruce—

Mittford, R., The Sutton Hoo ship burial. The trustees of the British Museum. (London 1979) 52—57., Fig. 42. The Taplow horn similarly might have been made from Aurochs horn. In: Stone, P., op. cit. (April, 1961) 102., Fig. 1. ' 5

1 Ibid. 103., Fig. 4.; ILN (21st March, 1959) 477. 5

2 Stone, P., op. cit. (May 1961) 144. Fig. 10. 5

3 Id, op. cit. (April 1961) Fig. 5, 7.; Id., op. cit. (May 1961) Fig. 11—13. 14 Folia Archaeologia XXXVI 1985.