Greece6th century BC · Berezan Island (Borysthenes), Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine
2,500-year-old bird-carved sheep bone from Black Sea Greek colony may invoke Achilles
Two researchers think the carved shoulder blade, excavated on Berezan Island in 1989, was used in a private ritual asking the hero for protection.
In brief 3 key points
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- Sheep shoulder blade carved with two birds and a wave-like ridge
- May show private household religion outside temples and sanctuaries
- Link to Achilles is a hypothesis and the birds remain unidentified
A sheep shoulder blade carved with two birds and a wave-like ridge may have been used in a private ritual asking Achilles for protection. That is the proposal of two researchers who re-examined the bone. It comes from Borysthenes, a Greek settlement on Berezan Island in the northern Black Sea, and dates from the 6th century BC.
Sergei Solovyov of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences made the study with Alexey Kasparov of the State Hermitage Museum. The bone was excavated in 1989. The pair have now looked again at its decoration and at the layer it came from.
Their reading is not definitive. The researchers say that neither the object's exact function nor its connection with Achilles can be established with certainty at present.
Cooked, eaten, then carved
The object is the shoulder blade, or scapula, of a sheep about two to two and a half years old. The researchers believe the meat was cooked and eaten first. Someone then deliberately reworked the bone.
The broad edge was cut into a row of teeth. The ridge that runs across the scapula was shaped into an undulating, wave-like form. On the outer surface, someone used a sharp tool to scratch the outlines of two birds, both facing left. Further lines show folded wings and details of plumage.
The Berezan Archaeological Expedition of the State Hermitage Museum found the bone. It lay in a layer dated between the first half and the third quarter of the 6th century BC. The same layer held pottery fragments, bones of domestic animals and other traces of everyday settlement life. Archaeologists dated the object from the pottery and from the layer's position relative to surviving ancient structures.
Borysthenes was one of the earliest Greek settlements in the northern Black Sea region. It was founded during the period when Greeks spread around the Black Sea and sea routes tied new communities to the wider Greek world.
Gulls or crows
Identifying the birds has proved difficult, and much depends on it. The researchers put forward two main options. The first is seagulls. Gulls would have been a familiar sight on the island, and the wavy ridge could stand for the sea.
That reading would fit Achilles. Ancient traditions about his sanctuaries in the northern Black Sea told of extraordinary or sacred birds. Scholars have often taken these to be gulls.
The second option is corvids, perhaps hooded crows. The shape of the beaks and the hatching used for the feathers resemble these birds.
In the Greek world corvids had religious ties, including to Apollo. Apollo was an important god at Borysthenes and mattered especially to Greek settlers and sailors. The researchers note that corvids could also have ties to Achilles, so either identification might fit their idea.
Achilles is best known as a warrior of the Trojan War. Around the Black Sea, Greek communities also worshipped him as a heroic or divine figure connected with the sea, navigation and protection. His sanctuaries stood around the northern and western shores.
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“We assume this is an object used for a private ritual, with which a person addressed Achilles for his protection.”
Sergei Solovyov, Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences
“This connection is suggested by both the birds and the wavy design of the scapula's crest, reminiscent of the sea.”
Sergei Solovyov, Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences
Solovyov stressed that the exact nature of any ceremony involving the bone is unknown.
If the idea is right, the bone would be evidence of religion practised outside temples and sanctuaries. It would be a cheap ritual tool made from the remains of an ordinary domestic animal, not a grand offering. Private, everyday religious acts are much harder for archaeologists to detect than public ceremonies. The object could record one person's or one household's appeal for protection, prosperity or well-being.
The link to Achilles remains a hypothesis. No inscription names Achilles, and the birds cannot be securely identified. Reading the wavy edge as the sea assumes the decoration was symbolic and not simply ornamental. The researchers have not established how the toothed edge, the ridge and the birds worked in any ritual, or how the bone was handled or displayed.
Sources (1)
News reportsfrom Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences and State Hermitage Museum
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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