Why skull-shaped beer mugs were considered the best graduation gift

Imagine the end of the 1800s in Germany. You graduate from a medical university. You have an academic gown, textbooks on anatomy and your faithful skull. You hold it by the bone handle, raise the top and sing joyfully with your friends: Gaudeamus igitur, juvenes dum sumus!

In short: "We will rejoice and live while we are young!"

Yes, the skull you hold in your hand is a beer mug. Only beer instead of the brain. They were popular in the late 19th - early 20th century in Germany, especially in Thuringia. Their exact origin is unknown, but judging by the prevalence, they were very popular.

No manufacturer was as closely associated with skull mugs as Ernst Bonet, whose porcelain factory in the city of Rudolstadt produced more than a dozen different variants.

The most famous among them is the "skull on the book." Under the skull itself was a book with traditional student feast songs. Main of the songs - Gaudeamus Igitur - whose opening words are written on the book cover.

In addition, the mug was decorated with a music box, from which this song sounded. Thanks to these features, a beer mug became a popular graduation gift in all areas of Germany. It was given not only to future doctors, but to all other students.

Another product of the Bone factory is a two-faced skull. On the one hand is the right skull of a person, on the other - the skull of the devil. And the pen they held was not just a bone pen, but a couple of coiled snakes. This serpentine holder was an obvious reference to the "caduceus" - the rod of the god Hermes. Hermes' braided by snakes mythological staff has gained importance as a medical symbol. Thus, the beer mug was directly related to doctors and doctors. Other porcelain manufacturers also tried their hand at making similar items, but no one has achieved such successes as E. Bonet. Some ceramic manufacturers in the Westerwald Mountains also made unique beer mugs in the shape of a skull, but in much smaller quantities and more meager variations.

Such mugs are kept at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The creativity of the authors of these works is not limited to the topics of human anatomy. Some of them look like singing pigs, elves, politicians such as Otto von Bismarck.

The museum connects the development of the production of these objects with the technical achievements of the industrial revolution, which made it possible to produce ceramics on a large scale and in various shapes. Manufacturers could afford experiments.

People always liked to drink beer from skulls. This was a special bravado. The most ancient examples of dishes from skulls were found by archaeologists in the cave of Gough (England). The age of the bones from which they were made was 14,700 years. This cave was one of the first places in Europe known to historians where people returned after the end of the ice age.

A detailed study of the bones showed that the remains of the ancestors were used by the ancient people as utensils. Paleontologists came to the conclusion that our ancestors did not hesitate to make bowls of skulls. Future dishes were processed with a chisel type, so that it was smooth and comfortable.

It remained unclear exactly when these skulls were used - only during religious activities or in ordinary life, too.

Speaking of the cups made of skulls, one cannot but recall the Grand Duke of Kiev Svyatoslav Igorevich. The Tale of Bygone Years brought us the following lines:

When spring came, Svyatoslav came to the rapids, and Kurya, the prince of Pecheneg, attacked him, and they killed Svyatoslav and took his head, and they made a cup from his skull and drank from it.

Eastern peoples also did not disdain such a custom. There is a message that on July 25, 811, a major battle took place on the Vyrbishsky passage through the Balkans between the troops under the command of Khan Krum and the Byzantine soldiers led by Emperor Nicephorus I. The Byzantines were defeated, and Nicephorus I was captured. His head was chopped off before the eyes of Khan Krum, then they planted him on a stake. The Bulgarians made a goblet decorated with silver from the skull of the Byzantine emperor. Khan Krum greatly appreciated him, he liked to show the ambassadors.

But we like porcelain beer mugs more. They are somehow prettier.

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