The sacralization of aurochs by medieval Slavonic and Baltic people

Abstract

On the territory of Belarus as well as Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and western regions of Russia there are several micro-toponyms like Turaǔ Hill, Turaǔ Hillfort, Turaǔ Tomb (grave), etc. Some of them appear to be real hillforts. Near the settlement Taurapilis («the castle of aurochs») in Lithuania together with a hillfort there’s also a burial mound from the end of the 5th century. Metal aurochs’ horn fetters were found among other artifacts there. A recorded legend connected with Turaǔ Hill, located in Vilnia (current Vilnius), says about the formation of a town at the beginning of the 14th century by the duke Hedymin, after he killed an aurochs there on a hunt. However, according to archaeological data, the main parts of the future capital city were populated at least a few centuries earlier. There’s a similar legend in Slavonic-Moldavian chronicles. It says about voivode Drahosh who in the middle of the 14th century came over the mountains hunting an aurochs, killed it on the bank of the river Moldova, returned with his people to that place, and founded a Moldavian state. The findings of aurochs’ horns with metal fetters in big burial hills in Čarnihaǔ (Black Grave), Šastavicy, Hniozdava, Usc’-Rybiezhna (The Ladaha area) date back to the 10th century. In general, they meet analogies in Sweden and on the island of Gotland. In central and northern Europe, horns with metal frames have spread since the late La Tène period and peaked in the times of Roman influence. Then in the times of the Great migrations of people, this tradition disappears in Central Europe and remains only in Scandinavia and on the southern coast of the Baltic. In Lithuania these horns appear in the 3rd century, culminating in 5th – 6th centuries, at the end of the first millennium, and are used only in the lands of Žemajts, Zemihals, and Kurshs, surviving till the 12th century. But according to the written data, in Žemajtian wealthy and noble people used such horns as cups in the first half of the 16th century. In burial hills in the Sozh and the upper Dnieper river basins, lowlands of the Western Dzvina, in Smalensk, former Pskou and Noǔgarad regions round metal pendants depicting a bull’s head in the center with 7 figures around it and 52 granulated dots alоngl the perimeter were found. The bull’s head symbolized a calendar year, figures – several days per week, and dots – several weeks per year. The pendants were found only in women’s burials, and date back to the 11th – 12th centuries. The area of accidental findings of these pendants is even wider, and the farthest finding comes from the Viking settlement Haithabu (Hedeby) in the south of Jutland. In the basic area, the pendants occur on the sites characterized by mixed Slavonic-Baltic. The image of the aurochs’ head also became popular in medieval heraldry (for example, the coat-of-arms of Moldova, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, Swiss Canton of Uri, and several towns). From Belarus to Archangelsk, there’s a tradition to call a furnace post as aurochs, as it’s connected with a «post» wedding rite and personifies the World Tree. In mythological terms, aurochs were considered to be one of the personifications of the God of thunderstorms, though at the same time it could be connected with fertility and solar cults. Key words: Aurochs, Slavs, Balts, Turava Hara (Aurochs mountain), Thunder God, drinking horns with metal rim, pendants with the image of bullhead.