The Artifact: Head of An Ox on a Tree Trunk
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Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The Artifact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. On a recent visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I came across one of the weirder pieces of art I think you could hope to find in such a place. Alongside various historic pieces from around the world, here's something that seems to stand outside of any given artistic tradition, or so it seemed to me.

It looks like the creature from John Carpenter's The Thing was in the process of turning into an ox when the flamethrowers hit it. The result? A googly-eyed head of an ox atop a wooden pillar of twisting hooves and tissue. Granted, I was pretty jet-lagged when I first took this sight in, literally struggling to stay awake on my feet, but this absurdity really captured my attention and woke me up a little bit.

The museum's website lists it as "head of an ox," while the signage in the museum calls it "head of an ox on a tree trunk." Indeed, this bizarre sculpture from the second half of the 17th century consists of an ox head carved from marble atop a tree trunk with added wooden hooves. If all of this was not enough, an oval cavity in the top of the ox head contains a wrinkled stone that for all the world looks like a fossilized or petrified brain.

So what is this brain all about? Well, for a while, according to the museum and a museum piece by curator Don Hoskin, it was long believed to be the fossilized or petrified brain of an ox. Subsequent analysis, however, I think chiefly by the Natural History Museum in 1933, revealed that it was in fact an osteoma or benign bone tumor, likely previously attached to the bones of an elephant or whale, given its enormous size.

Still, relative to the skeletal system they're attached to, an osteoma can grow quite large. According to a 2011 paper, Giant Frontal Osteoma by Vishwakarma et al., one human osteoma reached a size of 7.1 by 5.3 by 5.1 centimeters, or roughly 2.8 by 2 by 2 inches, which they say is one of the largest human osteoma ever reported. The osteoma in the ox head, however, is somewhat larger.

As Hoskin explains in her article, the piece is typical of 17th century fascination with naturally occurring oddities, even if the naturally occurring centerpiece of the work was not fully understood at the time. While its origins are shrouded in mystery, the piece likely came from a collection of curiosities in Villa, Altichero, and Padua in northern Italy. The museum acquired the piece in Venice in 1882.

And the piece is on display now, so if you find yourself in London, I do recommend popping over to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Go spend a few moments with it and revel in the morbid natural curiosity of a bygone age. Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, The Monster Fact, or Anomalia Stupendium each week in the Wednesday slot here in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. As always, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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