Archaeology and fertility cult in the Ancient Mediterranean

Burial customs manifest during the Aegean Bronze Age close relations with the idea of fertility. This is especially true for the Mycenaean world and it is a further indication of the predilection of the Mycenaeans for the various forms of symbolism. The relation may be expressed by the image of different living beings, more or less directly connected with fertility, or by placing more significant elements such as ostrich eggs within the tomb. The best examples of those elements, however, are the animal head rhyta. Their funeral use is limited to continental late Bronze Age Greece. Their meaning seems to be that of a substitute of a sacrifice pars pro toto which is supposed to supply the deceased with the guarantee of a symbolic and eternal regenerating blood libation in the after-life.peer-reviewe