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Back to previous pageLOT 0066
Sold for (Inc. bp): £780
CIRCA 11TH-9TH CENTURY B.C.
3 3/8 in. (141 grams total, 86 mm wide including stand).
With thick ribbed neck, crescent horns and prominent genitals; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]
PROVENANCE:
From the collection of D. Smith, Sussex, UK, 1990s.
LITERATURE:
Cf. similar bull in the Museum of Fine Art of Budapest, inventory no.51.946.
FOOTNOTES:
Like dozens of similar statuettes depicting animals or human figures, this bronze bull was probably offered by a worshipper during a sacrifice. A large number of statuettes were found in a thick layer of ash from the altar of Zeus at Olympia. In 2021, a similar statuette, with protruding horns, was found in the sanctuary. Bulls and horses were the favourite cultic animals in the Cretan, Achaean and Archaic Greek civilisations. The model of the long and narrow body was borrowed from the Near East.
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