Horns of Animals in the Ceremonies of Bronze Age Tribes in Steppe and Forest-Steppe Eurasia

Animals played an important role in spiritual life of the tribes that inhabited the steppe and the forest-steppe of Eurasia during the Bronze Age. They were often sacrificed during ceremonial manipulations. Burials of a whole carcass were seldom in the practices of most cultures. Much more often, some parts of animals were buried. Researchers paid attention to it but there are artifacts, which did not draw researchers’ close attention yet, i.e. horns of mammals. As an independent sign, they are rare findings in cult complexes. For example, among 840 sites of settlement cult complexes of the South of Eastern Europe only in five of them (0.6%) there were horns of animals. On sites of Asia, 757 settlement cult complexes are explored. Horns of animals were only in 10 (1.3%) of them. The article provides analysis of the complexes. Conclusions are as follows: a context of ceremonies included horns of various animals; horns of animals played a certain part in the ceremonies of fire honoring; horns corresponded to water elements; horns were associated with the other world. The most ample evidence of this are “texts” where the considered artifacts correlated with bones of predators of canis, i.e. the animals who steadily correspond to a kingdom of the dead. It is possible that persons who were buried with horns of animals were bearers of ceremonial function during their lifetime

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze · Bronze Age · Cult · Geography · Steppe · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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