Folia archeologica 31.
István Vörös: Zoológiai és palaeoökonómiai vizsgálatok a korai neolitikus Körös kultúra archaeozoologiai anyagán
ARCHAEOZOOI.OGIA 55 maintain the small ruminant dominance of its live-stock in areas hardly suitable for grazing, if 65 — 80 per cent of the animals was killed and eaten in immature age, before they reached their breeding season. In the southern part of the Carpathian Basin the marshy lands in the inundation areas along the narrow coastlines of the rivers of the S-SE Great Plain were unsuitable for keeping sheep. S. Bökönyi also called the attention to this fact. 8 6 In these areas the keeping of large animals could develop only during the dry warm periods of the Late Neolithic. In the Great Hungarian Plain the spring-lood of rivers inundated vast areas. After the retreat of the water a part of these areas produced rich pastures. Agriculture was, though, also cultirated in these areas. Even if we estimate the live-stock of the settlements (families) as consisting of only 150 — 300 sheep and 50—100 catties, the pastures belonging to the settlements became soon exhausted. With the knowledge of the ecosystem of the Early Neolithic as well as the linear settlement system of the Körös Culture we are forced to suppose the practize of transhumance in animal keeping. Transhumant shepherding, depending on natural sources of fodder, uses several supplementary grazing zones, as lowlands — lowlands, lowlands — highlands, highlands — highlands, alternatively. The inner seasonal chronostructurc of some settlements shows certain vague tendencies toward this practice. With the aid of the investigations on the horizontal and vertical distribution of the animal bone material at the settlements maybe we can distinguish two periods of accumulation: Summer period: 1. after the retreat of the flood from the riser flats the (exclusive?) eating of great quantities of molluscs and fishes; 2. killing and eating of infantile and juvenile individuals of domesticated animals. Winter period : 1. hunting for wild mammals in the winter and in spring; 2. the killing and eating of birds which spend only the winter in the Great Hungarian Plain; 3. killing and eating of subadult and adult individuals of domesticated animals. Further data for the possible seasonal or continuous character of the settlements of the Körös Culture will be furnished by investigations to be made on the micro-vertical accumulations of animal bone material found in the excavated parts of the settlements. 8 C Bökönyi, S., op.cit. 1971. 643.
