Revisiting the issue of a prototype for the images of long-eared griffons

The issue of finding a prototype of fantastic creatures called long-eared griffons in the studies (Fig. 1-3), and development of this motif in general and in the Scythian animal style, in particular, appear to be important and relevant today. The figure of a ornithomorph bird of prey which decorated a bronze cast noseband (Fig. 3: а) and was discovered in horse grave No. 1, kurgan No. 6, near the Dneprorudny settlement encouraged the author to search the roots of this image. Studies of this kind should rely on natural prototypes. Researchers find similarities between griffons and eagles and vultures of the Old World. It is believed that the presence of the ears that ornithomorphic images have and that birds in nature do not have reflect attempts to interpret reality rather than document it. However, birds with long ear tufts are found in nature, for example owls, especially, eagle-owls and long-eared owls (Fig. 3: i, j). These birds that we know today have lived on the planet for more than one million years. People's attitude towards owls has always been special because of their appearance, secretive nocturnal habits, noiseless flight and creepy sounds they make. For this reason, it is quite possible that the ear appeared in the iconography of a ornithomorphic griffon as an element of representation of a creature seen in nature and an attempt to better understand its image in time and space.