A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 36. - 1994 (Nyíregyháza, 1995)

István Vörös: Animal husbandry and hunting in the Middle Neolithic settlement at Tiszavasvári-Deákhalmi dűlő (Upper Tisza region)

István VOROS the Tisza Culture, the frequency of domestic animals drastically decreased by 20-30 %! 8.2. Domestic animals (Table 7-8) 16 sites. The basis of the animal husbandry in the Middle and Late Neolithic Cultures in Hungary was cattle stock which was complemented by the keeping small sheep and pig stocks. There are two places where we see some deviation from this pattern: Tiszavasvári-Deákhalmi dűlő and Battonya-Gödrösök. At the former settlement the remains of small ruminants exceed the occurrence proportion of cattle by 4.9 %, at the latter - by 2.1%. At the Czech and Moravian settlements of LPC the frequency of cattleAs 59-5 -89.2%; at the settlements of TLPC - Zseliz Culture - 56 - 73.2%; at the ALPC settlements of Middle Tisza Culture - 43.1 - 61.3 %; at the settlements of transitional ALPC - Early Tisza Culture - 32.1 - 90 %; at thd Vinca settlements - 58.8 - 83.9 %. The cattle relative frequency between 84-90 % is exceeded only by one domestic animal (Tiszasziget sheep 15.4 %) or a smaller percentiial proportion is shown by two domestic animals (Bylany pig-sheep: 6.4 - 4.6 %; Lebő A sheep-pig: 2.7 - 2 %). Besides the 43 - 75 % occurrence of cattle at the Moravian LPC settlements, at the TLPC - Zseliz Culture and ALPC settlements of the Middle Tisza region at the second place the 14.7 - 29.2 % occurrence of small ruminants, and at the settlements of transitional ALPC - Early Tisza Culture it was the pig with 26 - 32.9 % occurrence. At the Vinca settlements - except for Gomolava, where the proportion of pig-sheep was 26 -12.7 %, the proportion of small ruminants was 13-3 - 18 %, and that of the pig cc. 0.2 - 15 %. The low occurrence of cattle - under 60 -62 % - was compensated by higher occurrences of either small ruminants (25.1 -29.2 %) or pigs (26 - 31 %). 8.3. Hunting (Table 7-8) 15 sites. From the view-point of their frequency among the hunted animals aurochs was at the first place at 8, red deer at 4, roe-deer at 2 and wild boar at 1 settlement; on the second place roe-deer - wild boar -6-6, aurochs at 2 settlements; at the third place wild boar was at 5, roe-deer at 4, red deer at 3, aurochs at 1 settlement; on the fourth place red deer was at 5, aurochs at 4, wild boar at 2 and roe-deer at 1 settlement. At the woodland-steppe territory of Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain and in the river valleys the main large wild animal of the local wild fauna was aurochs-, in the woods of Alföld and in the mountains the red deer, wild boar or roe-deer were most common. The roe-deer and wild boar of the closed woodland and the red deer of bushy woodland (edge of woods) occurred together rt. 9 settlements following each other but not in the same sequence. Roe-deer and wild boar occurred at settlements in 2 cases, the wild boar - red deer in 2, the roe-deer - red deer in 1 case. Wild horse and kulan could be hunted in river valleys. 9. The character of the settlement Tiszavasvári-Deákhalmi dűlő At the ALPC settlement of Tiszavasvári-Deákhalmi dűlő the composition and proportion of domestic animal stock shows a significant formal similarity with that of the settlement at Szajol-Felsőföld which is located at the northern edge of Körös-Starcevo Culture (VÖRÖS 1980.). The relatively rare occurrence of pigs is also a characteristic feature of KörösStarcevo sites. The ALPC settlements of Tiszavasvári, located at the edge of Nyíri Mezőség - similarly to the KS - could be the seasonal cattle/sheep pastures places of „long distance" transhumance farming. At a prehistoric settlement, the frequency of pigs could also be interpreted as the indicator of the sedentism. The pig stock that could be herded over a small distance became more significant in deciduous forests, flood areas and constant settlements (e.g., tell settlements). That is to say at the places where the food producing farming had large fertile lands that were, in fact, cultivated. The KS and ALPC settlements of the Alföld had not yet shown this latter type of settlement structure and animal husbandry. Animal bones (pieces) found at Celtic and Sarmatian pits of surface B at Tiszavasvári-Deákhalmi dűlő: Species pit B.6 (Celtic) pit B.17 (Sannatian) Cattle 20 Small ruminant 7 Pig 6 Horse 6 Ass 2 Dog 5 64+ 46 64 Red deer 1 Hamster 4 Frog 1 Pond tortoise 1 Fish 103x 80x 110 80 Total 156 144 + = incomplete skeleton (disturbed feature) x = fish skeletons + mass scale layers. 180 Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1994