Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 26. 1989-1992 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1997)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bartosiewicz László: A Székesfehérvár Bestriary: Animal Bones from the Excavations of the medieval City Wall. p. 133–167.

Domestic pig It was hoped that the remains of domestic pig would form the most diagnostic part of the archaeozoological sample. This expectation is rooted in the Islamic prohibition on pork consumption that is illustrated by a drop in the contribution of pig bones between the two periods that reached one order of magnitude in the pooled sample {Table XXI). This species is particularly highly represented at provenance AE/1, which contained fragmented skeletal elements of relatively small individuals. This phenomenon may partly be due to the fact that among, pig many of the young are killed as is usual with most meat purpose herds (Payne 1973; Lauwerier 1983). The apparent lack of larger sized pig bones, howerer, also seems to support Bökönyi's suggestion that conscious selection and breeding of pigs only began following the departure of Turkish conquerors from Hungary. The same author cites a reference to the separation of phenotypes distinguished by color, as mentioned in a letter written in 1643 to Ádám Batthyány, the liberator of Székesfehérvár. As far as the time of Turkish occupation itself is concerned, the drop in the number of pig remains is selfevident, although a larger set of complementary data is needed to achieve a wider understanding of this problem as was the case with the medieval city of Vác (Bartosiewicz 1995, 49). Various explanations have been put forward to explain why the eating of pork became taboo in the Eastern Mediterranean area.Practical interpretations of pigs' traditional "uncleanness" date back as early as the late 19th century and include references to the disease-inducing characteristics and poor preservation of pork (Maimonides 1863). The more recent ecological reasoning sometimes depicts pig farming as a "threat to the integrity of basic cultural and natural ecosystems of the Middle East" (Harris 1974, 40-42). Others, at the same time, argue that is was exactly pig prohibition that led indirectly to the catastrophic deforestation in the areas of the Middle East by stimulating the exploitation of Caprines (de Planhol 1959, 58). The exploitation of pigs in many tropical areas, however, contradicts arguments concerning poor preservation (the smoking of pork is widely practiced in Equatorial Africa; Bartosiewicz 1984a), while evidence of pig keeping is also availabla from ancient Egypt (Haves 1964, 111). On the other extreme, the significance of natural environment is overlooked by Bennett (1976) who states that pigs "could live in hot deserts if they had food and water ...certainly climate has little to do with the near absence of pigs..."(sic!). A more sophisticated cultural-ecological explanation was proposed by Diener and Robkin (1978) who looked at the phenomenon as a means of ensuring the monopoly of urban merchants in stock rearing whose interest lay chiefly in pastoral herding (of small ruminants for example) in the Middle East. Even so, a marked cultural difference between the ancient Middle East and medieval Europe may be seen, the interpretation of which unfortunately is beyond the major focus of this faunal report. It is worth mentioning, however, that pigs were actually kept within quite a few European towns, as for example, in Fiume during the 15th century (Fest 1914), although they were banned from the Altstadt of Frankfurt am Main (Pounds 1974, 278). On the other hand, in 1842 it was reported that as many as ten thousand pigs were located in New York City! (Duffy 1968). These animals not only did not represent direct competition with humans for food resources as was speculated by Harris (1974, 4042), but actually became part of the urban ecosystem by consuming organic trash left over by the inhabitants. As may be seen by the contradictions surrounding the origin of the ban on pork, this dietary restriction is most probably the result of several factors and is thus strictly dependent on the period and location. When discussing the apparent avoidance of pork consumption by the Turkish population of Székesfehérvár, one should take into account the inevitable "inertia" of food taboos as well (Ross 1978). Although army units may be perceived as highly mobile communities which were in this case exposed to a different economic and cultural environment during the few decades of settlement, their subsistence practices were obviously intermingled with those of the local population. As far as pork consumption is concerned, this interaction should be thought of as rather unilateral. Substitution patterns mentioned in the previous section probably encouraged sheep keeping and the consumption of mutton by Hungarians. However, even Muslims who may be constrained to eat pork "not intending to sin or transgress, will find Allah merciful" (Koran 1974, 438-439). In spite of this, it unlikely that sporadic pig remains in the Turkish Period faunal material were actually part of Turkish kitchen debris since they were found in association with bones of other animals. In other words, whoever left these bones behind was not "constrained" by necessity to eat pork. It seems more likely that the occurrence of these bones illustrates a mixed segment of population that lived within the Turkish dominated Castrum area. Horse Due to the size of this species, horse bones display similar taphonomic characteristich to those shown by cattle remains and discussed in that section. However, since the only horse bones in this material came from the medieval period when horse was no longer eaten in Hungary (the comsumption of horse meat was banned at the beginning of Christian times), anthropogenic factors did not add to their fragmentation and taphonomic loss. 139