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Situlae depicting scenes of animal sacrifice. Top: Vače situla from Grave 1881/1 at Vače-Reber; Narodni muzej Slovenije inventory number P 581 (Laharnar and Turk 2018, 99 Figure 110; © National Museum of Slovenia, drawing by Ida Murgelj). Bottom: Situla from Magdalenska goraPreloge Grave 13/55; Naturhistorisches Museum Wien inventory number 27550 (Tecco Hvala et al. 2004, Insert 5; reproduced by permission of Sneža Tecco Hvala).
Source publication
There is a rich iconographic tradition demonstrating the importance of animals in ritual in the Dolenjska Hallstatt archaeological culture of Early Iron Age Slovenia (800–300 BCE). However, the role of animals in mortuary practice is not well represented iconographically, though faunal remains in graves indicate that their inclusion was an integral...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Europe was a center for the circulation of recurring sets of motifs, styles, and artifacts elaborated with imagery (Eibner 1981;Frey 2011;Lucke and Frey 1962). Situla art is a style centered in the northern Adriatic and is particularly important archaeologically because the narrative representations provide insight into Early Iron Age life (Figure 1). This is a toreutic figural art that appears on the eponymous situlae, or bronze buckets used for mixing and serving alcohol; other bronze vessels; belt plates; and various sheetbronze artifacts (Eibner 1981;Križ 2012;Lucke and Frey 1962;Turk 2005). ...
Context 2
... art does not appear to depict scenes of daily life; in fact, many of these scenes seem to be explicitly ritual in nature with a heavy focus on processions, feasting, and other communal celebrations. Procession scenes are particularly interesting for this study-there are many processions of humans and animals depicted, and in several cases, animals are being led or followed by a man armed with an axe (see Figure 1). These scenes have been proposed to represent animals being led to sacrifice (Lücke 2007). ...
Context 3
... carrying axes, leading or following animals, are depicted on five objects (Figures 1 and 6). On four of these objects, the animal is a horse (Figure 1, top; Figure 6a,b,d), on one there is a sheep (Figure 1, top), and on another, an ibex 3 and a red deer are recognizable, but the other ungulates cannot be taxonomically defined (Figure 1, bottom). ...
Context 4
... carrying axes, leading or following animals, are depicted on five objects (Figures 1 and 6). On four of these objects, the animal is a horse (Figure 1, top; Figure 6a,b,d), on one there is a sheep (Figure 1, top), and on another, an ibex 3 and a red deer are recognizable, but the other ungulates cannot be taxonomically defined (Figure 1, bottom). Ungulates whose species cannot be determined appear on three of the five objects (Figure 1, bottom; Figure 6a,c,e). ...
Context 5
... carrying axes, leading or following animals, are depicted on five objects (Figures 1 and 6). On four of these objects, the animal is a horse (Figure 1, top; Figure 6a,b,d), on one there is a sheep (Figure 1, top), and on another, an ibex 3 and a red deer are recognizable, but the other ungulates cannot be taxonomically defined (Figure 1, bottom). Ungulates whose species cannot be determined appear on three of the five objects (Figure 1, bottom; Figure 6a,c,e). ...
Context 6
... carrying axes, leading or following animals, are depicted on five objects (Figures 1 and 6). On four of these objects, the animal is a horse (Figure 1, top; Figure 6a,b,d), on one there is a sheep (Figure 1, top), and on another, an ibex 3 and a red deer are recognizable, but the other ungulates cannot be taxonomically defined (Figure 1, bottom). Ungulates whose species cannot be determined appear on three of the five objects (Figure 1, bottom; Figure 6a,c,e). ...
Context 7
... four of these objects, the animal is a horse (Figure 1, top; Figure 6a,b,d), on one there is a sheep (Figure 1, top), and on another, an ibex 3 and a red deer are recognizable, but the other ungulates cannot be taxonomically defined (Figure 1, bottom). Ungulates whose species cannot be determined appear on three of the five objects (Figure 1, bottom; Figure 6a,c,e). ...
Context 8
... are also highly significant in these scenes (Frie 2019). The situlae from Magdalenska gora and Vače depict very similar scenes; both the top and middle registers depict animals that are likely being led to sacrifice (Figure 1). The birds in these scenes mark the sacrificial animals-birds fly above them and perch on their backs, and there are even birds hanging upside down above these animals. ...
Context 9
... ungulates were identified on the basis of the morphology of the preserved figures, most often hooves and legs, but also short tails. While the missing pieces in many cases have been sketched in on the artifact drawings (see Figures 1 and 6), these reproductions are speculative so are not used for the purposes of identifying taxa. Ungulates with short tails are not horses or cattle but could be sheep, deer, or ibex, indicating that while these species are only represented on one artifact each in limited numbers, this is certainly an underrepresentation of their original prevalence in the situla art. ...
Context 10
... unidentified ungulates could also be other local species including goats or chamois, which are known in situla art outside Dolenjska ( Lucke and Frey 1962). The Vače situla depicts a ram with prominent testes following a man with an axe (see Figure 1, top). There are very few animals depicted with genitalia in Dolenjska Hallstatt imagery, and it was a specific choice to highlight that this was an intact ram, especially if wethers and ewes dominated flocks, as is often the case with wool flocks (Calder 2011, pp. ...
Context 11
... deer are identifiable in situla art on the basis of their antlers, and they most often appear in processions and hunting scenes, as well as the single scene of animal sacrifice (Figure 1, bottom). This is the only scene of its kind in the Dolenjska Hallstatt repertoire; however, it does have important parallels in the Etruscan world. ...
Context 12
... situla from Grave 13/55 at Preloge near Magdalenska gora is very unusual; it shows a harnessed ibex being led by a man, followed by a second ibex (see Figure 1, bottom). This scene likely indicates that the ibex were being taken for sacrifice, because it mirrors scenes with horses and axe men. ...
Context 13
... of the dead is a labor-intensive performative ritual that is sensuously affective upon the audience (Williams 2004). The entire performance, from the building of the pyre to the cremation itself and the final recovery of select bones from man and beast is best understood as "scene-making", because a cremation was "clearly intended to be remembered by mourners, not through its endurance and permanence, but through its brief visibility and subsequent destruction" (Williams 2004, p. 271). The combination of man and horse-either cremated separately or together, would have been a powerful sensory experience for the observers (Frie 2016, pp. ...
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... A lo dicho sobre Etruria algo más arriba hay que añadir que el ciervo es uno de los elementos utilizados en las representaciones de las sítulas con decoraciones figuradas en banda que aparecen en la franja que va desde la Toscana (Etruria) hasta la actual Eslovenia en las culturas hallstáticas de Dolenska, Vače y similares (Frie 2020;Leonardi 2016). Un caso significativo es el Carro de Monteleone (Emiliozzi 2011), donde un cérvido (hembra en este caso) es asociado a aves de presa. ...
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