Bronze & Early Iron Ages

Connecting Earth & the Cosmos

The prehistoric people of Southeastern Europe found meaning in the natural environment. Close observation of seasonal and solar cycles, celestial movements, and the behavior of animals influenced an understanding of their physical and spiritual worlds. Celestial and animal imagery are often incorporated into objects used in ritual practice because their particular movements, behaviors, or strengths could be symbolically transferred to an object and make it a potent mediator between realms.
 
The sun appears to rise and set on the Earth’s horizon, and birds easily navigate both land and sky—traversing spaces that humans cannot—and such iconography came to be associated with a communion between worlds. Water birds, such as ducks, have yet a third environment as their home, thus making them ideal messengers between different elemental realms. Bird imagery in particular appears frequently in Bronze and Iron Age artifacts, often associated with objects found in funerary burials or other ritual contexts, and suggests a desire to connect with spirits beyond. Some vessels represent bird and human hybrids, even more evocative of the transitional and magical nature of these creatures. In addition to their association with the afterlife, birds may have also served as symbols of fertility and birth, an interpretation reinforced by the discovery of eggs alongside bird-shaped vessels in some grave assemblages.

A vessel with a bird's stylized head, neck, legs, feet, and tail. The neck and body are incised with parallel lines.

Bird-shaped lamp, 1200–900 BCE, bronze, Unknown provenance, H. 12.2 cm, L. 18.4 cm, W. 7.1 cm, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, Hungary: 60.1951.16. Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó 

This extraordinary artifact reveals the skill of Bronze Age metalsmiths. It was cast using the lost-wax technique, an approach that allowed the artisan to achieve complex patterns on the bird’s body. The hollow form and attached loops suggest that it may have functioned as a lamp, an assertion reinforced by a recent chemical analysis showing the remains of animal fat inside the artifact.

A globular vessel with one handle, the body of a bird, and a human face and ears on the neck.

Askos, 1900–1700 BCE, ceramic, Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom, Hungary, H. 14 cm, L. 16.8 cm, W. 13 cm, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, Hungary: 72.4.124. Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Although askoi (pouring vessels) often appear in funerary contexts, not all of them were grave goods. This example with the body of a bird and the face of a human, was likely used for ceremonies in life. Bronze Age askoi often contain traces of special liquids, like blood or psychoactive potions, that were consumed as part of a ritual.

A flat round form with four axles and spoked wheels, decorated with the heads and upper bodies of stylized long-beaked birds.

Wagon model, 800–700 BCE, bronze and iron, Bujoru, Romania, L. 26 cm (max.), W. 15.5 cm (max.), H. 16.5 cm (max.), National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, Romania: 135281. Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Model wagons and the stylized bird imagery that appear in Bronze Age archaeological finds continued into the Early Iron Age. Discovered in a funerary mound as part of a suite of grave goods, this wagon likely functioned as a cult object. Other Early Iron Age wagon models with similar bird motifs have been unearthed in Kosovo and Serbia.

ISAW Logo

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World 

15 East 84th St.
New York, NY 10028
212-992-7800

ISAW Logo. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World 15 East 84th St. New York, NY 10028 212-992-7800