Cypriot Horn model: Early Cypriot II-Middle Cypriot I (2200-1850BC)

In the Early and early-Middle Cypriot periods models of several everyday object were placed in tombs in North Cyprus.  The earliest were ceramic models of knives with separate knife-sheaths. Possibly they had an apotropaic purpose or were substitutes, on occasion, for the real bronze items. Later these were joined by models of bull horns, spindles (for spinning thread) and carding combs (at least this is the most common interpretation of the latter), all of them in Red Polished ware.  There was clearly some sort of fertility cult around horned animals, most usually bulls but also goats and stags.  (Plank figures were at one time also interpreted as female fertility figures but this is now widely discounted). In this period these horned animals were often pictured on vessels, and bull (and perhaps goat) heads appear on poles in model shrines.  In the late ate Bronze Age "horns of consecration" have been found in sanctuaries (as on Crete) and with them hollowed out bull skulls presumed to have been used as masks in ceremonies.  Whether these ceramic horns were used to drink from or to pour libations is uncertain, but clearly had a symbolic or magic function in funerals when they were put into tombs. The horn is pierced near the rim, presumably for suspension. Perhaps this suggests they were hung on the walls of houses as a protection. About 20 are known, from North and central Cyprus, though no doubt there are other (originally looted) examples in small, private collections like mine.