CIMRM Supplement - Tauroctony with croziers. Dardagana, Bosnia.

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:

Near the village of Dardagana, in the municipality of Zvornik, district of Tuzla, in a quarry "Sige" during works carried out by the company "New Source" from Zvornik, in spring 1965, a monument from the Mithras cult was discovered (Fig. 1). After the discovery of the monument, during further work in a quarry four damaged Roman bronze coins, a cruciform fibula (Fig. 2) and a fragmented enamelled vase(Fig. 3) were found. On the monument, on the outside of the discovered stone block, can be discerned certain engraved signs which are probably connected to the cult (Fig. 4). Above the city finds a coin and fibula on inaccessible rock layers can be discerned sufficiently clear idea (Fig. 5 and 6). The finds were lodged in the Museum of Eastern Bosnia in Tuzla by Voja Peric, director of the company. The monument was broken into four parts and is quite damaged. It is roughly carved, and measures 50 x 70 cms.

Bibliography

• Milica Kosoric, "Spomenik Mitrinog Kulta Iz Okoline Zvornika", 1965. Online at muzejibtuzla.podkonac.org.