Folia archeologica 36.
Lovag Zsuzsa: Egy XI. századi bronz korpusz
EARLY MEDIEVAL AUROCHS 213 Among Medieval cattle the occurrences of these giant wild cattle was really very rare or perhaps their bone remains are still insufficiently known. 6 0 Some bones of giant cattle with bones having dimensions similar to those of Aurochs were found at Buda in the 14—15/16th century layers of the Castle. 70 The same locality also yielded a long, large cattle horn-core from the 16—17th century (Turkish period). 7 1 At Kecskemét, a town on the Great Hungarian Plain where the reading and export of wild cattle was Practized, 16—18th century layers yielded horncores of large long-horned wild cattle. The dimensions of the large twisted horncores found at Kecskemét 7 2 are still smaller than those of the horn-cores and horns of Hungarian white cattle (= wild cattle) from the turn of the 19—20th centuries 7 3 (Table 5). Hunting-horns made of the twisted, open horns of wild cattle are known in Hungary from the 17—19th centuries. Their length is from 350—790 mms 71 (Table 5). A far better knowledge of Medieval and early modern giant wild cattle would be promoted by an increase in the number of certain bone remains (especially the material from Middle-European cattle-markets and butchers' stalls and in the first case large Masowian Bovid bone remains) as well as by comparative investigations of them. 3. Data on the criticism of Medieval and modern " Aurochs representations " Our stereotypic proof of the Medieval/Early modern occurrence of Aurochs in Europe or more exactly in the E. part of Middle-Europe, are typically the animal representations from Herberstain/Gessner woodcuts and the so called "Thür" painting of Augsburg. In the 1557 edition of S. F. Herberstain's "Rerum Moskovitarum Commentarii" there are two woodcuts by A. Hirsfogel, a Vienna cartographer and map-drawer, depicting a "black aurox" and a "withe Bison". According to Herberstain the "aurox" lives only in Masuria near the Lithuanian border. There are only a few of them and they are bred like animals in zoological gardnes. These wild oxen differ from domesticated ones only in their colour. 7 5 On both woodcuts the animals are viewed from the right. A. Hirsfogel made the woodcuts in accordance with Herberstain's description, although neither Herberstain nor Hirsfogel had personally seen an aurox 6 9 Here, the question of whether these animal bones really belonged to Aurochs of giant wild cattle is passed over. The answer to this question will requires further study. Some bone remains of large Bovid (Bison, Aurochs, or wild cattle?) are known e. g. from the 11—12th centuries layers of Alt-Lübeck and from the 9—13th centuries layers of Hessens. In: Nobis, G., op. cit. (1954) 186—197, 190., Tabl. 21., X., Diagram 13, 15. '» Bökönyi, S., BpR 20 (1963) 401—403. 7 1 Ibid. 401—403., Fig. 4. 7 2 Id., op. cit. (1974) 442. 7 3 Makóvicxky'% date are published by Wellmann, О., Pézsmatulok és Tulok. In Brehm, A.— Éhik, Gy., Az állatok világa. Emlősök 3. (Budapest 1929) 150. 7 4 Kós, K., Népi eszközvilágunk ősrétegéből. In: Eszköz, munka, néphagyománv. (Bukarest 1979) 79—80., 85., Fig. 119, 126, 127. 7 5 Lengerken, H., op. cit. (1955) 161—163.
