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One of a pair of drinking horns
These drinking horns are made from the extremely large horns of the aurochs (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of modern domestic cattle. Such horns are among the rarest finds from early Anglo-Saxon England. They were clearly one of the most prestigious possessions and have a long history amongst the barbarian peoples of Europe. Tacitus, writing in the first century AD, describes how the Germani trapped and killed aurochs and then made drinking horns which they decorated with silver mounts. These two horns from the princely burial at Taplow show that this tradition was still alive among the élite in the sixth century. They would have been used for ceremonial drinking and feasting in a great hall.
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