Bucranium (plural bucrania) is the Latin word for the skull of an ox. It is also an architectural term used to describe a common form of carved decoration in Classical architecture, used to fill the metopes between the triglyphs of the frieze of Doric temples. A bas-relief or painted decor consisting of a series of ox-skulls draped or decorated with garlands of fruit or flowers was a Roman motif drawn from marble altars, which have survived in some number; the motif was also later used on Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical buildings. It is generally considered to be a reference to the practice of garlanding sacrificial oxen, the heads of which were primitively displayed on the walls of the temples, a practice with a long history reaching back to the sophisticated Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia, where cattle skulls were overlaid with white plaster. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... A hippopotamus skull A skull, or cranium, is a bony structure of Craniates which serves as the general framework for a head. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... From the point of view of modern times, the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean sometimes seem to blend smoothly into one melange we call the Classical. ... Metope from the Parthenon marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapith fighting In classical architecture, a metope is the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze. ... Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channelled tablets of the Doric frieze, so called because of the angular channels in them, two perfect and one divided, the two chamfered angles or hemiglyphs being reckoned as one. ... Frieze of the Tower of the Winds. ... The uncompleted Doric temple at Segesta, Sicily, has been waiting for finishing of its surfaces since 430–420 BC The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. ... Bas relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. ... In the traditional view, the Renaissance is understood as a historical age that was preceded by the Middle Ages and followed by the Reformation. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... An array of Neolithic artefacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae Scotland, Europes most complete Neolithic village. ... Excavations at the South Area of Çatal Höyük Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without accent marks -- Çatal is Turkish for fork and Höyük is Turkish for mound) was a very large Neolithic and... Asia Minor lies east of the Bosporus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. ...

A rich and festive Doric order was employed for the Basilica Aemilia on the Forum Romanum at Rome; enough of it was standing for Giuliano da Sangallo to make a drawing, c 1520, reconstructing the facade (Codex Vaticano Barberiniano Latino 4424); the alternation of the shallow libation dishes called paterae with bucrania in the metopes reinforce the solemn sacrificial theme.With time, during the sixteenth century, the connection with sacrifices faded and bucrania became part of a decorative vocabulary that evoked "Roman-ness". Reconstructive drawing of the facade of Basilica Emilia in the Augustean Era, viewed from the Roman Forum, 1905. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was a central area of ancient Rome in which commerce, business, trading and the administration of justice took place. ... Portrait by Piero di Cosimo, c. ... The word patera has various meanings: A patera was a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in a ritual context such as a libation. ...

In serious, visually literate contexts, the presence of bucrania always signifies that the Doric order is the organizing principle, but in a first-century fresco from Boscoreale, protected by the eruption of Vesuvius and now at the Metropolitan Museum, bucrania and cistae mysticae hang on ribbons from pegs that support garlands, evoking joyous fasti. Boscoreale is a modern comune of Campania in the Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, known for the fruit and vineyards of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio. ... Mount Vesuvius (Italian: Monte Vesuvio) is a volcano east of Naples, Italy, located at 40°49′N 14°26′ E. It is the only active volcano on the European mainland, although it is not currently erupting. ... There is also the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), located in Manhattan. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

References

• Francis Brenders, "The Basilica Aemilia on the Forum Romanum at Rome
• Garlanded bucrania on the Ara Pacis
• Sir William Chambers, A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, 1791 : Doric order with bucrania between metopes
• Garlanded bucrania on the Tomb of Cecelia Metella
• Sylloge Nummorum Gracorum: Rubi: obols with garlanded bucrania on reverse

Further reading

• George Hersey, 1988. The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi, (MIT Press) Chapter 2: "Architecture and Sacrifice"