bos taurus primigenius a giant (skeletal remains show them as being fully 2 m tall at the shoulder) form of early cattle, no longer found in Britain after the Bronze Age but which continued to wander the forests and grasslands of Southern and Central Europe. The last Aurochs, a cow, died in Poland in 1627. Aurochs horns were used as high status ceremonial drinking horns, embellished with silver fittings. Such an aurochs horn was laid with the dead king in the Sutton Hoo burial, circa 625 CE. The aurochs was memorialized in the second letter of the runic alphabet, the futhark, the letter Ur signifying primal strength. The Old English Rune Poem describes the letter Ur thus: Aurochs is fierce and high-horned/the courageous beast fights with its horns/a well-known moor-treader, it is a brave creature (translation Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore)
The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is a very large, extinct type of cattle, originally prevalent in Europe. The word aurochs is both singular and plural; alternative plural forms are aurochsen or urus. The animal's original scientific name, Bos primigenius, translated the German term Auerochse or Urochs, literally "primeval ox", or "proto-ox".