Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Szekszárdi Béri Balogh Ádám Múzeum Évkönyve 13. (Szekszárd, 1986)
László Bartosiewicz–Alice M. Choyke: Animal exploitation at the site of Csabdi–Télizöldes
A special aspect of animal exploitation is the use of bone and antler as raw materials in tool manufacture. It should be noted that chiefly bones of small animals may be found in the tool inventory. Skeletal parts of sheep and/or goat, wild pig, roe deer and various birds were used in bone manufacture in addition to the bones of cattle and red deer antler. In this paper, attention is focused on the relationship between the role of domesticates in meat consumption with complementary reference to the significance of hunting and bone/antler working as a particular, non-food use of animal resources. A detailed documentation of raw faunal data appears in Table 1. Since no chronological or functional distinction between the two major sections (eastern and western) of the site could be made in terms of the chief groups animal of remains (wild and domestic animals) the potential sub-division of the faunal material was not carried out, the data in this review will be discussed as a whole (Bartosiewicz 1984). The contents of Table 1 is summarized in the form off meat value/ species categories in Table 2. These categories are based on the quantitative meat bearing capacity of each skeletal part as described by Uerpmann (1972). Almost 40% of the bones identifiable to species come from domestic cattle, with relatively many C category, that is, dry limb bones. The number of cattle remains of this type was 1,5 times greater than the frequency of bones in either of the A or B meat value categories. The minimum number of individuals for cattle was estimated to be 65, a value which might have been increased only slightly by the use of sub-division on the basis of variations in mature size (Bökönyi 1971). This part of the determination, however, was difficult tc make in the fragmented material and so it was excluded from the estimations. This consideration also facilitated subsequent comparisons with other sites published in the literature. The second most significant domestic species was pig bones of which made up some 10% of the identifiable remains. A minimum of 29 individuals was calculated, a relatively high number compared to that of cattle. This apparent discrepancy, on the other hand, may be explained by more intensive butchering and natural fragmentation of bones from large animals. Pig bones appear in similar frequencies in all the meat value categories. A relatively less important group of domestic animals was the Caprinae subfamily that includes sheep and goat, two species of similar osteomorphological makeup which makes distinction between their bones problematic. The identifiable remains at Csabdi-Télizöldes all originated from sheep. Bones in the A category dominate. The eleven dog bones from the site come from at least five individuals, that is, no articulated skeletons could be identified as would have been otherwise common with dogs according to examples from other sites. In spite of this observation, dog bones at Csabdi-Télizöldes show no signs of processing (cut marks, heat treatment), so it is not possible to demonstrate that meat from this species formed part of the diet. In terms of fragment numbers aurochs is the second best represented animal in the material. Its 18% contribution is associated with only 27 individuals (minimum), showing the intensive partition of the large carcasses. The relatively large proportion of C category bones suggests that of site butchering may have limited while the intra-site analysis of bone distributions also indicates the probable pres182
