I picked this one up just today, noticing the beard, bovine ears and horns, one of which may be depicted as broken. The seller dated it to 1st-4th century AD. Perhaps someone could say more based on the material.
We know of small
man-faced bull masks with
apotropaic functions, sometimes depicted with one broken horn, scattered throughout the Mediterranean in Cypro-Phoenician sites (8th-6th cent. BC). This doesn't appear to be one of those, as it is probably a much, much later piece. But I do think it is from the same, longstanding tradition of the
man-faced bull used in this context.
Anyway, I'm excited to study it in hand!
Terracotta, 28/24mm
