CIMRM Supplement - Tauroctony with croziers. Dardagana, Bosnia.

Tauroctony. Figure 1. From: muzejibtuzla.podkonac.org.

Zoom of Sol and Luna.

Zoom of the snake with halo.

Fig. 3. The fibula and vase.

Fig 4. The marks on the rear.

In 1965 a relief and other objects were found in Dardagana in Bosnia, in the Roman province of Dalmatia. The coins were of the reign of Valentinian I. The execution of the tauroctony is unusual; the sun and the moon are together to Mithras' right; the torchbearers carry shepherd's crooks, or croziers, rather than torches. The snake is present, and it has a halo around its head; the dog is between Mithras' legs.1 Clauss has stated that the relief seems to have been made by someone unfamiliar with the cult.2

A rough translation3 of the opening of the Milicia Kosoric article:

Bibliography


1I owe my knowledge of this relief to David Walsh, via Twitter here.
2M. Clauss, "Cultores Mithrae", 1992, p.145: "Die ungewöhnliche Anordnung der Personen auf dem Mithras-Relief und die Ausführung der Arbeit deuten auf einen auswärtigen Kultanhänger. Mit dem Relief gefundene Münzen stammen aus der Regierungszeit Valentinians I." i.e. "The unusual arrangement of the persons on the mithras relief and the execution of the work point to a maker outside the cult. Coins found with the relief are from Valentinian I."
3The article is in Bosnian. This is a Google translate using Serbian.

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