Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)

The animal remains from the Avar cemetery at Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya

408 KÖRÖSI Andrea Pig Food offerings: The pig remains recovered from the burials were all food offerings (Table 2). Eight graves of the Felgyő cemetery contained pig remains (nine deposits). Grave 119 contained two pig offerings, the other burials contained one each. Only pig was deposited in two burials; the pig remains in four other graves were found together with animal sacrifices and amulets. Hen sacrifices were placed in Graves 95, 170 and 199, the limb bones of domestic goose, domestic hen and hare were deposited as amulets in Grave 119. Cattle meat was deposited in addition to the pig offering in two graves. Grave 95 yielded sheep and pig, while Grave 57 contained two other species (cattle and domestic hen) in addition to the pig remains (Table 10). The most frequently deposited food offerings were loin chops. Grave 95 yielded two ribs. Ribs were brought to light from four graves. Two burials contained both a rib and a vertebra (a sacral vertebra in Grave 119 and a cervical vertebra in Grave 199). A femur was recovered from Grave 57, the articulate rear limb (femur-tibia-calcaneus-astragalus) from Grave 149, and a tibia from Grave 191. The remains from these three burials represent meaty bones. One of the femurs and the rear limb came from a young individual. Pig remains were most often deposited in male burials. The distribution of graves according to sex was the following: five male, one female and one indeterminate burial (Table 3). Zoological characteristics: The pigs were medium sized individuals (Table 8). The withers height estimated from the astragalus recovered from Grave 149 was 60 cm (TEICHERT 1975). The animal was not fully grown, its age was estimated as 1.5 years. Hare Two hare metatarsals were found in Grave 119, deposited together with domestic goose and hen wing bones. The distal end of the bones was perforated, the epiphyses were worn, suggesting that they had been strung on a cord. The bones were probably part of a set of amulets. Pigeon Grave 92, a child burial, yielded a pigeon tarsometatarsal. This bone is not a meaty bone and can thus hardly be interpreted as a food offering. It is possible that the bird was the child's pet, although in this case the entire bird would probably have been placed in the grave. It seems more likely that the bone symbolised the child's attachment to birds, an interpretation supported also by the placement of four domestic goose wings in the grave. ANIMAL SACRIFICES IN THE AVAR CEMETERY AT FELGYO Altogether 102 food offerings were found in 79 graves (Table 2). 27 graves (26.5 per cent) contained a single offering only, 17 graves (16.7 per cent) contained two offerings, three graves (2.9 per cent) contained three offerings, another three graves (2.9 per cent) contained four offerings, while four graves (3.9 per cent) contained five offerings. Cattle was most often deposited (46: 42.6 per cent), followed by sheep (28: 25.9 per cent), domestic hen (25: 23.2 per cent) and pig (9: 8.3 per cent). The most frequent cattle offerings were loin chops and ribs (37 graves: 78.7 per cent). The last sacral vertebra or, very rarely, the last two were most often found in the graves. Dorsal vertebrae and a few ribs and limb bones were also recovered. About one-half of the sheep remains were ribs (11 pieces), the rest were dorsal and sacral vertebrae (six of each). Very rarely, the limb bone was also found. In the case of hen, the wing and the thigh (usually only the meaty part of the latter) were placed in the burial. Complete wings were rarely found and complete legs were altogether lacking. The most frequent pig remains were represented by ribs, usually no more than a single piece in each burial. A few graves contained a pig vertebra and a limb bone (Table 10). Eggs According to the field diary, eggs had been placed in nineteen graves: thirteen of these contained one egg each, the others two or more (Table 10). Grave 157 yielded two eggs, Graves 136 and 159 contained three eggs, Grave 57 four eggs, while five eggs were found in Grave 234 and six eggs in Grave 141. The egg shells have all been lost, except for the specimens from Grave 234, which contained five eggs of domestic hen placed beside the deceased in various spots. AMULETS AND ATTRIBUTES IN THE FELGYO CEMETERY Eleven graves yielded amulets or attributes. Fowl bone amulets were placed in male, female and child burials in the same proportion, while cattle and sheep amulets were deposited in male and child burials only. Bone attributes were recovered from three graves. Two sheep astragali were found in a male and a child burial (Graves 207 and 208), in the region of the thighs. One of the astragali in the child burial bore patches of brown pigment. Grave 128 yielded a sheep M

2 tooth, found near the upper end of the thigh. Six graves contained amulet sets, made up mostly of poultry bones. Four graves yielded the carpometacarpal of domestic goose, one grave contained the carpometacarpal of domestic hen and the metatarsal of hare in addition to the goose bone. Deposited in Grave 92 were the carpometacarpals of domestic goose and a pigeon metatarsal. Grave 86 yielded a single domestic goose metacarpal, Grave 108 contained two specimens, Grave 159 three specimens, while Graves 92 and 118 contained four metacarpals each. The amulet set placed in Grave 119 was made up of eleven pieces: five metacarpals of domestic goose, four metacarpals of domestic hen, and two hare metatarsals perforated at the end. Carpometacarpals can be easily strung on a cord. Similar amulet sets have been found in other Avar cemeteries too: Dienes regarded finds of perforated bird and hare bones as relics of the ongon cult (DIENES 1972, 97-108). Some of the other assemblages of this type differ from the one found at Felgyő: Grave E.17 of the Kiszombor cemetery contained hare metapodials only, while Grave 57 of the burial ground at Csengele-Feketehalom yielded the perforated ulna of domestic goose (BÁLINT 1975, 52-53). Even though amulets were predominantly fashioned from the bones of poultry and, occasionally, hare at Felgyő, the beliefs associated with these amulets were no doubts similar.