Aurocks - in Culture

In Culture

The aurochs was one of the most important hunting game animals and attained cultural significance early on. In the oldest cultural references, aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European and Mesopotamian cave paintings, such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. When the animals were drawn in profile, only one horn was visible, which some researchers say gave rise to the legend or Greek mythos of the unicorn, though the elasmotherium, a now extinct Eurasian giant rhinoceros, is a more likely derivation. Early carvings of the aurochs have also been found. The impressive and dangerous aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East, and was worshipped throughout that area as a sacred animal, the Lunar Bull, associated with the Great Goddess and later with Mithras. In 2012, an archaeological mission of the British Museum, led by Lebanese archaeologist Claude Doumet Serhal, discovered at the site of the old American school in Sidon, Lebanon, the remains of wild animal bones, including those of an aurochs, dating from the late fourth-early third millennium. A 1999 archaeological dig in Peterborough, England, uncovered the skull of an aurochs. The front part of the skull had been removed but the horns remained attached. The supposition is that the killing of the aurochs in this instance was a sacrificial act.

Also during antiquity, the aurochs was regarded as an animal of cultural value. Aurochs are depicted on the Ishtar Gate. Aurochs horns were often used by Romans as hunting horns. Aurochs were among those wild animals caught for fights (venationes) in arenas. Julius Caesar wrote about aurochs in Gallic War Chapter 6.28:

"...those animals which are called uri. These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this sort of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments."

The ancient name of the Estonian town of Rakvere, Tarwanpe or Tarvanpea, probably derives from Auroch's head (Tarva pea) in ancient Estonian. The Hebrew Bible contains numerous references to the untameable strength of re'em, translated in the King James Version as "unicorn" but recognized from the last century as Aurochs.

When the aurochs became rarer, hunting it became a privilege of the nobility and a sign of a high social status. In the Nibelungenlied, the killing of aurochs by Siegfried is described: “Darnach schlug er schiere einen Wisent und einen Elch, starker Ure viere und einen grimmen Schelch”, meaning "After that, he defeated one wisent and one elk, four aurochs and one Schelch" - the background of the "Schelch" is dubious. Aurochs horns were commonly used as drinking horns by the nobility, which led to the fact that many aurochs horn sheaths are preserved today (albeit often discoloured). Furthermore, there is a painting by Willem Kalf depicting an aurochs horn. The horns of the last aurochs bulls, which died in 1620, were ornamented with gold and are located at the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm today.

Schneeberger writes that aurochs were hunted with arrows, nets and hunting dogs. With immobilized aurochs, a ritual was practised that might be regarded as cruel nowadays: the curly hair on the forehead was cut from the skull of the living animal. Belts were made out of this hair and were believed to increase the fertility of women. When the aurochs was slaughtered, a cross-like bone was extracted from the heart. This bone, which is also present in domestic cattle, contributed to the mystique of the animal and magical powers have been attributed to it.

In eastern Europe, where the aurochs survived until nearly 400 years ago, the aurochs has left traces in fixed expressions. In Russia, a drunken person behaving badly was described as “behaving like an aurochs”, whereas in Poland, big strong people were characterized as being “a bloke like an aurochs”.

In Central Europe the aurochs features in toponyms and heraldic coats of arms. For example, the names Ursenbach and Aurach am Hongar are derived from the aurochs. An aurochs head, the traditional arms of the German region Mecklenburg, figures in the coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The aurochs (Romanian bour, from Latin būbalus) was also the symbol of Moldavia; nowadays they can be found in the coat of arms of both Romania and Moldova. In modern-day Romania, there are villages named Boureni. The horn of the aurochs is a charge of the coat of arms of Tauragė, Lithuania, (the name itself of Tauragė is a compound of taũras "auroch" and ragas "horn"). It is also present in the emblem of Kaunas, Lithuania, and was part of the emblem of Bukovina during its time as an Austro-Hungarian Kronland. The Swiss Canton of Uri is named after the aurochs; its yellow flag shows a black aurochs head. East Slavic surnames Turenin, Turishchev, Turov, Turovsky originate from the Slavic name of the species tur. In Slovakia there are toponyms like Turany, Turíčky, Turie, Turie Pole, Turík, Turová (villages), Turiec (river and region), Turská dolina (valley) and others. Turopolje, a large lowland floodplain south of the Sava river in Croatia, got its name from the once-abundant aurochs (Croatian: tur).

In 2002, a 3.5m-high and 7.1m-long statue of an aurochs was erected in Rakvere, Estonia for the town's 700th birthday. The sculpture, made by artist Tauno Kangro, has become a symbol of the town.

Aurochs are frequently mentioned in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, in which roasted aurochs are sometimes served at banquets.

In the 2012 movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, the six-year-old main character imagines aurochs, though the fantasy creatures are portrayed by "costumed" Vietnamese Pot-Bellied piglets.