Bronze figures of animals from the Early Iron Age

The National History Museum preserves several interesting and rare examples of geometric art from the period of the 7th – 7th centuries BC. Hr. The schematic representations of animals cast in bronze as individual figures or as elements of the decoration of various articles (axes, vessels, etc.) were common in the pre-Hemenid East as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Hr. The zoomorphic motifs that appear in the Balkan lands in the second phase of the Early Iron Age show certain similarities with the eastern prototypes, but also their own local specificities. The known specimens from Thrace represent deer, horse, bull, goat, ram, birds – animals that according to ancient written tradition and pictorial monuments were offered as sacrifices in the royal ritual in Thrace.

So far, the context of discovery of the objects as well as their purpose are not sufficiently clarified. One of the axes was found in a tomb from the 7th – 7th century BC. Hr. the edge with. Kameno pole, Vratsa region. Similar axes and animal figurines are present among the finds from some major Hellenistic sanctuaries of the time (Dodona, Aegina, Ephesus, Delphi, Olympia, etc.).

On the basis of the available evidence, it can be assumed that some of the objects (miniature axes and figurines with holes or rings for hanging) decorated clothing or were worn as amulets, while others were probably elements of sceptres or vessels. Some of them were placed in the graves of noble Thracian aristocrats as a symbol of their priestly functions performed during their lifetime, and others – as votive offerings in various sacred places.

1. Statuette of a deer, bronze, area of the town of. Petrich, 8th – 7th century BC, NIM, Inventory No. 33475 Summarized, geometrized depiction of a stag-lobatar with broad antlers. The figure has irregular proportions, with elongated cylindrical body and neck.

2. Statuette of a goat, bronze, unknown location, 7th – 7th century BC, NIM, Inventory No. 59253The body is elongated, prismatic, the ears and tail are conical, and the muzzle is pyramid-shaped. There is an attempt at realistic rendering of individual details – the muscles of the rump are rounded, plastically shaped, and the horns are long, massive, curved backwards. A suspension ring is cast on the back.

3. Miniature axes, bronze, unknown locality, 7th – 7th century BC, NIM, Inventory Nos. 59252, 59254 The first one has a trapezoidal blade, with a wide rounded edge and arc-cut side contours, and the second – with a narrow quadrangular blade with a rounded edge. The body of the two axes is moulded together with the heel, which is bifurcated and terminates in two symmetrically placed sciatic bull (?) heads and ram (?) protome, facing in opposite directions. In the upper part between them are cast circular and drop-shaped rings.

Literature:
– Venedikov, I., Gerasimov, T. Thracian Art. Sofia, 1973.
– Kitov, G. Thracian symbolic axes and amulets with images of animals. – Archeologia 2 (1979), 13 – 19
– Konova, L. Bronze figure of a deer from the National Museum of Natural History. An attempt at interpretation. In. I, abstracts, articles. Geo Press, 2003
– Konova, L. The Royal Sacrifice. – Newsletter of the Arete Foundation, 1, 2-3 (2003), 17 – 28
– Karadzhinov, I. Miniature Axes with Zoomorphic Protomes from Greek Sanctuaries in the Light of Thraco-Greek Contacts in the 8th-6th Century BC. – Archaeologia Bulgarica XV, 1 (2011), 1-12 Vassileva, M. Bronze Animal Figurines from Gordion. In. Çilingiroglu, A. Sagona (Eds.) Anatolian Iron Ages 7. The Proceedings of the Seventh Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Edirne, (19-24 April 2010), Peeters Leuven – Paris – Walpole, Ma 2012, 317 – 332.

Author. L. Konova
Photos. R. Tavitian