Ox figure from Dieburg

The ox figure by Dieburg from Dieburg in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse belongs to a team dating from the late 4th or early 3rd millennium BC. It is incorrectly referred to as the Dieburg bull figure, although bulls cannot be used as draft animals . The exact circumstances of the find are unknown.

The copper plastic of an ox belonged to a team, as the remainder of a broken yoke on the neck shows. The metal figure has a length of 9.1 cm, a width of 3.3 and a height of 6.1 cm. The weight is 252.9 grams. The central, narrow oval body of the animal widens in the shoulder and pelvic area. The genitals are clearly visible. The legs have neither joints nor hooves, the hind legs are bent under the body. The neck changes into a pointed head. The arched horns point forward. The eyes are placed on the side of the head and represent the eyes. A hole through the hindquarters was provided for a connecting rod between the two animals of the team.

So far, with Bytyń (Polish Wołki z Bytynia) near Posen in Poland (from 1873) and Lisková in the Okres Ružomberok in Hungary, only two other copper cattle-horse-drawn representations of the Central European Copper Age are known. On the other hand there is a ceramic horse and carriage depiction by Krężnica Jara (Poland). They are considered to be the oldest artistic evidence (of their kind) for working with draft animals. Models from the Middle East ("Fund Anatolia b", "Fund Berlin XI b 2869", "Fund Anatolia no 4"), which are connected to four-wheeled wagons, are much more delicate.

The figure of Dieburg is in the Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with the inventory number B 257.

literature

Christian Züchner: The copper bull B 257 in the Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In: Report of the Bayerische Bodendenkmalpflege 30/31, 1989/90, pp. 66–77.

Individual evidence

↑ Martin Nadler: Animal labor in the Neolithic? - Evidence of oxen in the early Neolithic from Marktbergel, Middle Franconia. In: inhibiting Hofener scripts 3 loop slide, bike and car earlier the question of transport north of the Alps . 2002, ISSN 1437-8620 , pp. 109-110.
Jump up ↑ Wolfram Nagel : Two copper models of a cult car with a two-axle gated pulpit type from the Alacahüyük culture in the Museum of Pre- and Early History in Berlin. In: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 16/17, 1984/85, pp. 143-151.

Web links

Description and pictures ( Memento from August 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory of the University of Erlangen
Description and picture

[1] Martin Nadler: Animal labor in the Neolithic? - Evidence of oxen in the early Neolithic from Marktbergel, Middle Franconia. In: inhibiting Hofener scripts 3 loop slide, bike and car earlier the question of transport north of the Alps . 2002, ISSN 1437-8620 , pp. 109-110.

[2] Jump up ↑ Wolfram Nagel : Two copper models of a cult car with a two-axle gated pulpit type from the Alacahüyük culture in the Museum of Pre- and Early History in Berlin. In: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 16/17, 1984/85, pp. 143-151.