Bucranium (plural ''bucrania'';

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''βουκράνιον'', referring to the

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

of an ox) was a form of carved decoration commonly used in

Classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect ...

. The name is generally considered to originate with the practice of displaying garlanded, sacrificial oxen, whose heads were displayed on the walls of temples, a practice dating back to the sophisticated

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

site of

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a tell of a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from app ...

in eastern

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

, where cattle skulls were overlaid with white plaster.

Etymology and sphere of application

The word "bucranium" (

latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''bucranium'') comes from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: βουκράνιον - being composed of βοῦς (''ox'') and κρανίον (''skull'') - and literally means "ox skull". Analogic, the Greek word αἰγικράνιον (''latin'' aegicranium) means a "goat skull", also used as a decorative element in architecture. The technical term "bucranium" was originally used in the description of classical architecture. Its application to the field of prehistoric archeology is relatively recent and is mainly due to the work of the British archaeologist

James Mellaart James Mellaart FBA (14 November 1925 – 29 July 2012) was an English archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was expelled from Turkey when he was suspected of involvem ...

dedicated to the

site of

. In 1977,

Glyn Daniel Glyn Edmund Daniel FBA, FRAI (23 April 1914 – 13 December 1986) was a Welsh scientist and archaeologist who taught at Cambridge University, where he specialised in the European Neolithic period. He was appointed Disney Professor of Archa ...

established this new meaning of the term, introducing it into the ''Illustrated Encyclopedia of Archeology''.

Overview

In ancient Rome, bucrania were frequently used as

metope In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a bu ...

s between the

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s on the

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

s of temples designed with the Doric order of architecture. They were also used in bas-relief or painted decor to adorn marble altars, often draped or decorated with garlands of fruit or flowers, many of which have survived. A rich and festive Doric order was employed at the

Basilica Aemilia The Basilica Aemilia ( it, Basilica Emilia, links=no) was a civil basilica in the Roman Forum, in Rome, Italy. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters (328 ft) long and about 30 meters (98&nbs ...

on the Roman Forum; enough of it was standing for

Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giulia ...

to make a drawing, c 1520, reconstructing the facade (''Codex Vaticano Barberiniano Latino'' 4424); the alternation of the shallow libation dishes called ''

patera In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''phiale'' ( ) or ''patera'' () is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation (''omphalos'', "bellybutton") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, in ...

e'' with bucrania in the metopes reinforced the solemn sacrificial theme. While the presence of bucrania was typically used with the Doric order, the Romans were not strict about this. In a first-century fresco from

Boscoreale Boscoreale (; "Royal Grove") is an Italian '' comune ''and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 27,457 in 2011. Located in the Vesuvius National Park, under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, it is known for the fru ...

, protected by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, bucrania and Cista, cistae mysticae hang on ribbons from pegs that support garlands, evoking joyous ''fasti''. At the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli, designed using the Corinthian order, motifs interpreted by the architect Andrea Palladio as conventional skull bucrania adorn the frieze, although these are actually fleshed ox heads with eyes. Similarly, the Temple of Portunus in Rome, designed using the Ionic order, has bucrania in its frieze. In later years, the motif was used to embellish buildings of the Renaissance architecture, Renaissance, Baroque architecture, Baroque, and Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical periods. Garlanded bucrania provide a repetitive motif in the plasterwork of the fine 18th-century Staircase Hall of The Vyne (Hampshire), inside the Pantheon at Stourhead (Wiltshire) and at Lacock Abbey (Wiltshire).See Loth "Bucrania" for many more examples

Gallery

Ankara Muzeum B20-08.jpg,

bucrania from

(Turkey), in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara (Turkey) Obol, Keramos, Caria, 2nd century BC.jpg, Obol (coin), Obol from Ceramus. It depicts the head of the god Apollo and a bucranium, 2 BC Frise à têtes de taureaux (détails).JPG, Frieze with festoon, festoons and bucrania, in the Ephesus Archaeological Museum (Selçuk, Turkey) Ara dal foro di lucca, 30-0 ac. circa 01.JPG, Bucranium with festoons on a Roman altar, circa 30-0 BC Temple of Vesta, built in the early 1st century BC on the acropolis of Tibur, Tivoli (14920855626).jpg, Bucrania with festoons decorating the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli, Temple of Vesta from Tivoli, Lazio, Tivoli (Italy) Sarcofago caffarelli con ghirlande, da roma, 40 dc ca. 03.JPG, The Caffarelli sarcophagus, decorated with bucrania and festoons, in the Altes Museum (Berlin) Ara Pacis Augustae, Interno 06.jpg, Relief with bucrania with festoons and ribbons, in the Ara Pacis altar from Rome Firenze - Palazzo Budini Gattai 18.jpg, Bucrania on a Doric order, Doric frieze of the Palazzo Budini Gattai from Florence (Italy) Drawing, Design for a Frieze, 1820–1830 (CH 18109113).jpg, Design for a Neoclassicism, Neoclassical frieze, 1820–1830, in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York City) Drawing, Design for a Vase, 19th century (CH 18112345).jpg, Design for a vase with a bucranium, 19th century, in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Hoteld'Almeyras-P3-027.jpg, Bucranium with a festoon on a corbel of the Hôtel d'Almeyras (Paris)

Notes

References

Francis Brenders, "The Basilica Aemilia on the Forum Romanum at Rome

Sir William Chambers, ''A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture'', 1791 :
Doric order with bucrania between triglyphs

Sylloge Nummorum Gracorum: Rubi
obols with garlanded bucrania on reverse

External links

* {{Ornaments Cattle in art Ornaments (architecture) Columns and entablature Reliefs