DRINKING HORNS

In Western cultures ‘drinking horn’are the horn’s of cattle used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity especially the Balkans. Horn remains till this day reflecting upon the symbolic use of ‘horn’ for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic Europe, and in the Caucasus. Indeed drinking horns remain an important accessory in the culture of ritual toasting in Georgia in particular, where they are known as khantsi. Drinking vessels made from glass, wood, ceramics or metal styled in the shape of drinking horns are also known from antiquity. The ancient Greek term for a drinking horn was simply keras. To be distinguished from the drinking-horn proper is the rhyton, a drinking-vessel made in the shape of a horn with an outlet at the pointed end. 

The ‘drinking horn’s' place in Western culture is largely symbolic and reflective of subcultural sensibilities where drinking horns held ritual significance to do with geography and the ‘cultural of place’. In their original form they were part of the 'tool kit'  herders, warriors and the like carried with them as a matter of convenience. 

In other cultures, and in particular indigenous African cultures, where ‘cattle’ hold a special place in their social and economic realities. In many ways African 'drinking horns' run parallel to cultural determiners in Europe and arguably these 'exotic-and-other' horns reinforced and somewhat enriched the colononisers' cultural narratives. Likewise, in the ‘colonised world’ where ‘bovine cattle’ were not part of cultural landscape drinking horns appear a mimics of their European origins. Given libations and 'drinking's' significance in rituals and ritual life plus the mythologies and the story-telling that goes with it all, it is not at all unsurprising that the form turns up as trophies and gifts of esteem etc. etc. 

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The piece above ia big cow horn used to transport liquids, especially brandy. It fits model of the cultural transplant of the Spanish 'wine skin' – bota – offering as it does potability and durability. Another interesting detail is thistle flower, the flor de cardo, is the national flower of Argentina.

Taken by themselves and across cultural realities and the geographies that give rise to the 'placedness' evident in drinking horns, they present rich territory within which a broad spectrum of cultural issues might profitably be explored.

Drinking Horns West Africa

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 Click on a image to enlarge