Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 21. 1981 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1984)
Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Bartosiewicz László: Csabdi–Télizöldes: Taphonomy in the Western Section of the Neolithic Site. p. 235–240.
3 Meat consumption also necessarily results in more intensive fragmentation of larger bones : intentional breakage makes food processing easier and is indispensable when marrow extraction is practiced. This is shown by the spiral fractures often evident on bones in this material. 4 Screening of the material probably also would have increased the proportion of small bones recovered. Bones belonging to the В category dominate and are equally characteristic in both kinds of proveniences. The A and С groups occur more systematically in pits, which is particularly interesting in the case of small mammals' remains. These bones might find their way into the pits right before food preparation or after consumption, while larger pieces may have already been left behind in other parts of the settlement following primary butchering (Yellen 1977). Although considerable absolute differences may be observed between the mean values of bone category frequencies in features and excavation units respectively, none of these proved significant on a 98% level. Significant differences in variances however, suggest that while excavation units consistently contain the minimum or at least only a small number of large mammalian bones, pits vary in terms of the contents of the large mammalian remains. In the case of the "best" large mammal A bones, features fall into two extreme groups. В and С categories of large mammalian bones rank the features into three clusters according to their almost minimum, medium or nearly maximum content. Culturally interpreted, functional or ownership differences between these refuse pits may be responsible for the heterogeneity. The number of bone elements averages approximately one ihird of the potential maximum in both types of proveniences, but displays a wide range of variation which corresponds to the number of bone specimens in the respective proveniences. This indicates that in accordance with the law of large numbers the hypothetical model outlined previously largely corresponds to external reality. Summary Preliminary study of faunal material brought to light from ten squares in the western section of the Neolithic settlement at Csabdi —Télizöldes showed that remains of large mammals dominated in this part of the site. A comparison of ten pits and sixteen excavation units (various levels in the ten squares) revealed significant differences in the variation of abstracted meat value categories. The bones of large mammals have a decisive role in forming the picture drawn from the sample. Patterned occurrence of small mammalian remains (particularly in features) however, indicates that their low representation in fact reflects their secondary importance in prehistoric animal exploitation at this site. Although the possibilities of differential preservation and partial recovery should not be ruled out, the low number of small mammalian remains may partly be interpreted as a consequence of neolithic meat consumption patterns when a comprehensive faunal report dealing with proportions of species is compiled. A ckno wledgements I would like to acknowledge the help of Ms. J. Antoni who entrusted me with the analysis of the zoological finds and Dr. A. M. Choyke who corrected the English in this paper. BIBLIOGRAPHIA Antoni 1982 Bartosiewicz 1982 Binford—Bertram 1977 BMDP 1981 von den Driesch 1976 Efremov 1940 Uerpmann 1973 Wosinszky 1886 Wosinszky 1893 Yellen 1977 J. ANTONI, Our Prehistoric Ancestors in Csabdi. Tata. (Catalogue of the 1982 exhibition). L. Bartosiewicz, Animal offering distribution patterns in burials. Manuscript. L. R. BINFORD —J. B. BERTRAM, Bone frequencies and attritional processes, in: L.R. Binford edit. Background studies for Theory Building, NeW York, 77—153. Biomedical Programs. Department of Biomathematics, University of California. A. VON DEN DRŒSCH, A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Peabody Museum Bulletin 1,7. I. A. EFREMOV, Taphonomy: A new branch of paleontology. Pan-American Geologist LXIV, 81—93. H. P. UERPMANN, Animal bone finds and economic archaeology. World Archaeology, IV/3, 316. M. WOSINSZKY, Leletek a lengyeli őskori telepről. AKözl, XIV, 1—89. M. WOSINSZKY, A lengyeli telep csiszolt kőeszközei s azok készítési módja. AÉrt, XIII, 193—198. J. E. YELLEN, Cultural pattering in faunal remains : Evidence front the ! Kung Bushmen, in : Archaeology, D. W. Ingersoll edit. New York, 271—331, 237
