Folia archeologica 48.
István Vörös: Az aquincumi castrum mithraeumának állatcsontleletei
82 ISTVÁN VÖRÖS cattle depicted from the left side and floral branches, carved from the exterior side 5 6 (Fig. 6). Description of the carved cattle representation: The head is short compared to the trunk. The long, thin horn is lyre-form. The edge of the head is wide, the frontal hair is depicted on it in three tresses. The forehead is wide, domed. The profile is slightly arched. The faces and the mandible is full, the latter is marked with sharp contour lines. The ears are large, narrow and long. I he neck is highly throated, the breast is shallow, the yoke-edge is deeply bent. The trunk is long, shallow, with high hoisted abdomen at the flanks. The back is deeply bent. The loins are long and panned. The withers are protruding, the dump pointed, protruding. The buttocks are drooping. The tail is long with a tuft at the end. The limbs are adequately muscled, the shoulders are vertical. The long and slender limbs are separated well from the neck part. The carpi and the hock are thick. The ankles and the pastern are inflated with large diameter. The large hoofs are long and narrow. Neither male, nor female genital features are observable. Fhe animal is robust with strong bones, a heterogeneous total image over-bred species in „run-down" (thin) state. The cattle was depicted in standing manner with head pushed forward. The complete impression on the animal, its constitution and the omitting of genital features suggest an ox. This realistic representation of cattle is an individual feature in antiquity, unlike Italian representation or the cattle images known from the provinces. It is especially different from the average „bison-like" bulls generally known from the Mithrean reliefs, which have short horns and bulky constitution. From the point of iconography it is more similar to the Egyptian cow representations of the New Kingdom 5 7 where secondary genital features of the cow were equally omitted. 5 6 Kocsis 1991. 118., Fig. 11.1. 5 7 Peterson 1973.79., Taf. 21.34.
