Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Szekszárdi Béri Balogh Ádám Múzeum Évkönyve 13. (Szekszárd, 1986)
Sándor Bökönyi: Environmental and cultural effects on the faunal assemblages of four large 4th mill. B. C. sites
janitza a triple tendency can be observed: 1) The ratio of cattle increased in a clear though not straight line through the whole lifetime of the settlement. 2) The ratio of caprovines fell back and could not even reach one of its original value at the of the life of the site. 3) The frequency of pigs being on about the same level in all phases became three times higher in comparison to that of the caprovines in the last phase of the site (Bökönyi, in print). Dealing with this switchover in the animal husbandry, one can automatically raise the question: Was there any local cattle or pig domestication in these four settlements? As I already pointed out elsewhere, (Bökönyi, 1969, 223) the two main proofs of local domestication are the occurrence of transitional forms between the wild and domestic forms of a given species and the changes in the ratios in the sex and age groups of the wild form of the species in question. As for the occurrence of transitional individuals, they are present among cattle both in Aszód and Herpály connecting the size variations of the wild and domestic forms (Figs. 4-5), but they are less numerous in Obre II and Poljanitza (Figs. 6-7). In pig, the situation is somewhat different. As for the length of the lower M 3 , there can be found transitional individuals and overlapping in Poljanitza, Aszód and Herpály, but they do not exist in Obre IL As regards the extremity bones, there are clear overlappings of the size variations in Aszód and Herpály alone. In Poljanitza there can be noted some slight connections, and there is a wide gap between them (with the exception of the scapula) in Obre II (Figs. 8-12). Regarding the second proof of local domestication are the changes in the sex and age groups of the wild forms: Its essence is that in case of local domestication the ratio of males and adult individuals is high and that of the females and young ones is low in the bone sample. (This is the result of a kind of husbandry with the wild form.) As there can be seen in Figs. 4-5 the overwhelming majority of the aurochs bones of Herpály and at least half of them of Aszód come from bulls, thus they fit very well this picture. In Obre and Poljanitza the majority of the bones comes from females. The ratio of young individuals is low in the Hungarian sites, rather high in Poljanitza, and Obre II retains a position in between the two extremes. Looking at the wild boar samples from the same viewpoints, one can see that the males are a little less frequent than females (Figs. 8-12). At the same time, the ratio of juvenile individuals is certainly not as low as in wild cattle, and this is for all four sites. As a conclusion one can say that there was a large scale cattle domesticaton in Aszód and particularly in Herpály. In Obre II and Poljanitza, a local aurochs domestication could happen nevertheless, on a much lower scale than in the Hungarian sites. In case of pig, there certainly was a local domenstication in both Hungarian sites, but on a much lower scale than that that of the aurochs. In Poljanitza, the importance of pig domestication was even lower, and in Obre II it only was sporadic. The primary or secondary uses of the domestic animals are the determinants of animal keeping strategies of the inhabitants. Species with primary use (meat) are mainly killed in their juvenile or subadult age (in small species, e. g. sheep, goat or pig) right before their first or second winter because during the winter fodder shortage the precious breeding stock can only be fed. Animal species with secondary 72
