In Asia Acheulean layers in
Hunasagi on India's southern
Deccan Plateau yielded aurochs bones with cut marks. An aurochs bone with cut marks induced with
flint was found in a
Middle Paleolithic layer at the
Nesher Ramla Homo site in Israel; it was dated to
Marine Isotope Stage 5 about 120,000 years ago. An archaeological excavation in Israel found traces of a feast held by the
Natufian culture around 12,000 years BP, in which three aurochs were eaten. This appears to be an uncommon occurrence in the culture and was held in conjunction with the burial of an older woman, presumably of some social status.
Petroglyphs depicting aurochs in
Gobustan Rock Art in Azerbaijan date to the
Upper Paleolithic to
Neolithic periods. Aurochs bones and skulls found at the settlements of
Mureybet,
Hallan Çemi and
Çayönü indicate that people stored and shared food in the
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture. Remains of an aurochs were also found in a
necropolis in
Sidon, Lebanon, dating to around 3,700 years BP; the aurochs was buried together with numerous animals, a few human bones and foods.
Seals dating to the
Indus Valley civilisation found in
Harappa and
Mohenjo-daro show an animal with curved horns like an aurochs. Aurochs figurines were made by the
Maykop culture in the
Western Caucasus. The aurochs is denoted in the
Akkadian words rīmu and rēmu, both used in the context of hunts by rulers such as
Naram-Sin of Akkad,
Tiglath-Pileser I and
Shalmaneser III; in Mesopotamia, it symbolised power and sexual potency, was an
epithet of the gods
Enlil and
Shamash, denoted prowess as an epithet of the king
Sennacherib and the hero
Gilgamesh. Wild bulls are frequently referred to in
Ugaritic texts as hunted by and
sacrificed to the god
Baal. An aurochs is depicted on
Babylon's
Ishtar Gate, constructed in the 6th century
BC.
In Africa Petroglyphs depicting aurochs found in
Qurta in the upper Nile valley were dated to the Late Pleistocene about 19–15,000 years BP using
luminescence dating and are the oldest engravings found to date in Africa. Aurochs are part of hunting scenes in
reliefs in a tomb at
Thebes, Egypt dating to the 20th century BC, and in the
mortuary temple of
Ramesses III at
Medinet Habu dating to around 1175 BC. The latter is the youngest depiction of aurochs in
Ancient Egyptian art to date.
In Europe Evidence has been found for the butchery of aurochs by archaic hominins in Europe during the
Middle Palaeolithic, such as the
Biache-Saint-Vaast site in northern France dating to around 240,000 years ago, where bones of aurochs have been found burnt by fire and with cut marks, thought to have been created by
Neanderthals. At the late Middle Palaeolithic Cueva Des-Cubierta site in Spain, Neanderthals are proposed to have kept the skulls of aurochs as hunting trophies. The aurochs is widely represented in
Upper Paleolithic cave paintings in the
Chauvet and
Lascaux caves in southern France dating to 36,000 and 21,000 years BP, respectively. Two Paleolithic
rock engravings in the
Calabrian
Romito Cave depict an aurochs. Palaeolithic engravings showing aurochs were also found in the
Grotta del Genovese on the Italian island of
Levanzo. Upper Paleolithic rock engravings and paintings depicting the aurochs were also found in caves on the
Iberian Peninsula dating from the
Gravettian to the
Magdalenian cultures. Aurochs bones with chop and cut marks were found at various
Mesolithic hunting and butchering sites in France, Luxemburg, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Denmark. Aurochs bones were also found in Mesolithic settlements by the
Narva and
Emajõgi rivers in
Estonia. Aurochs and human bones were uncovered from pits and
burnt mounds at several Neolithic sites in England. A cup found in the Greek site of
Vaphio shows a hunting scene, in which people try to capture an aurochs. One of the bulls throws one hunter on the ground while attacking the second with its horns. The cup seems to date to
Mycenaean Greece.
Greeks and
Paeonians hunted aurochs and used their huge horns as trophies, cups for wine, and offerings to the gods and heroes. The ox mentioned by Samus,
Philippus of Thessalonica and
Antipater as killed by
Philip V of Macedon on the foothills of mountain
Orvilos, was actually an aurochs; Philip offered the horns, which were long, and the skin to a temple of
Hercules. The aurochs was described in
Julius Caesar's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Aurochs horns were often used by Romans as hunting horns. During the
Middle Ages, aurochs horns were used as
drinking horns including the horn of the last bull; many aurochs horn sheaths are preserved today. The aurochs drinking horn at
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge was engraved with the college's coat of arms in the 17th century. An aurochs head with a star between its horns and
Christian iconographic elements represents the official
coat of arms of Moldavia perpetuated for centuries. Aurochs were hunted with arrows, nets and hunting dogs, and its hair on the forehead was cut from the living animal; belts were made out of this hair and believed to increase the
fertility of women. When the aurochs was slaughtered, the
os cordis was extracted from the heart; this bone contributed to the mystique and magical powers that were attributed to it. In eastern Europe, the aurochs has left traces in expressions like "behaving like an aurochs" for a drunken person behaving badly, and "a bloke like an aurochs" for big and strong people. == Domestication ==