Bull-leaping

As a bull jump is called a reconstructed from pictures acrobatic exercise allegedly cultic character of the Minoan civilization.

When bull jumping young men and women jumped in the longitudinal direction over a bull.

Technology

After the controversial reconstruction drawing by Arthur Evans of Springer took first a galloping wild animal in the left horn. Due to the movement of the head of the bull of the Springer was thrown into the air. With a backward somersault he jumped on the back of the bull, from where he jumped over the tail of the bull and was caught.

This artistic exercise was life-threatening. When a diver missed the neck of the bull, he was impaled and pierced by the bull, which is confirmed figures on Cretan stamp seals. It was initially unclear whether such exercises were actually taking place. For a long time it was not possible to replicate the technology. Stuhlfauth in 2010 was the connection to the bull jumps the recortadores in Portugal and Spain forth, which have both the typical gesture with his arms raised and the somersaults along on the back of the bull. The characteristic hollow cross -emphasizing avoidance movement of recortadores from the horns of the bull is found in the Minoan bronze figure of Tylissos again.

Execution

Evans assumed that the bull jump east of the Palace of Knossos took place in a wooden palisade. Ward argues for it to locate the venue in the central courtyard of the palace.

Chronology and distribution

First visual evidence of the bull leap can be found in early Minoan period (FM II, 2700-2150 BC) from Koumatsa and postage. After documents are only from the time the new palaces occupied ( MM IIIb, LM IA ), mostly from Knossos. The best known example is the bull Springer - fresco from Knossos ( see above). Kathryn Soar assumes that the elites Knossian this ancient ritual consciously took up again in an urban context or revived and began during the context of the competition between different factions.

A fresco from Tell el- Dab'a ( Avaris ) in Egypt and Syrian cylinder seals are among the few representations of practice outside of Knossos and Crete. It is unclear, the reference to a wall painting in the palace of Tiryns, on the after Schliemann man is shown dancing on a bull.

Ward sees the Theseus myth one last nightlife of this ritual. Stuhlfauth however, considers one of today's rich tradition by public performances of recontadores due to the wide distribution of the bull cult in the Mediterranean is quite possible.

  • Representations of bull jumpers
  • Bronze image of a factory bull jump from Crete, now in the British Museum
  • Figure of a bull jumper on a Minoan seal
  • Ivory statuette - part of a group mehrfigurigen from Crete
  • Fragment of a Minoan fresco from Avaris (Egypt)
Cult (religious practice) Heinrich Schliemann Bull (mythology)
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