Gaál Attila (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 22. (Szekszárd, 2000)

Bartosiewicz László: A badeni kultúra állatcsontleletei Aparhant–Felső legelő településéről

László Bartosiewicz Animal remains from the Baden culture settlement remains at Aparhant-Felső legelő (Western Hungary) Resume Copper Age animal bone finds from the Baden culture settlement remains at Aparhant-Felső legelő in south-western Hungary (Figure 1) showed known characteristics of animal exploitation in that period. The 162 identifiable bones were dominated by the remains of cattle (41%) and sheep (or possibly goat; 35%). The contribution of pig and wild animals was of only secondary importance, none of them reaching 10% (Figure 2). Aside from sheep being characteristic of Late Copper Age assemblages in Hungary, the importance of cattle seems remarkable. The relatively high number of cattle bone deformations (2 cases of each heavy metapodial asymmetry and exostoses as well as a case of lipping at the edge of the pastern joint) may be interpreted as resulting from draught exploitation. Given the very small size of the assemblage available for study, these values could be misleading. The overall picture, however, is very similar to the situation at the site of Győr-Szabadrét-domb, where Copper Age animal exploitation was exploited on the basis of 48,410 bones (Figure 6). The relatively greater contribution of red deer remains to the assemblage from Aparhant coincides with the large size of red deer bones (measurable burr of shed antler and proximal ends of metapodia; Figures 3, 4 and 5), which indirectly indicates that the settlement's environment must have been forested and as such a good red deer habitat. Bone implements recovered at this site were definitely ad hoc (expedient, Class II) in character. Most of them originated from commonly available sheep or goat, and only a few of them showed actual signs of manufacturing. Use wear has revealed that many of them were bone fragments used opportunistically to perform a single task prior to discard. Figure captions Figure 1: The location of Copper Age sites mentioned in the text Figure 2: The percentual distribution of 162 identifiable animal remains (szarvasmarha=cattle, sertés=pig, juh/kecske=sheep/goat, kutya=dog, őstulok=aurochs, gímszarvas=red deer, egyéb vadállat=other game) Figure 3: Estimating the age of a stag from Aparhant on the basis of burr proportions (x axis: years in age; y axis: proportion between internal/external diameters of seal; the line marks age-dependent proportions in modern red deer) Figure 4: Proximal width of an Aparhant red deer metacarpus in comparison with mean values and ranges in various periods (neolitikum=Neolithic, bronzkor=Bronze Age, római kor=Roman Period, középkor=Middle Ages, recens=Modern Age) Figure 5: Proximal width of an Aparhant red deer metatarsus in comparison with mean values and ranges in various periods (neolitikum=Neolithic, bronzkor=Bronze Age, római kor=Roman Period, középkor=Middle Ages, recens=Modern Age) Figure 6: A comparison between the percentual distributions of Copper Age sites in Hungary. In contrast to the small assemblage from Aparhant, the samples from Győr-Szabadrét-domb and Gyöngyöshalász-Encspuszta contain thousands of animal bones Plate I: 1 - small ad hoc chisel (Schibler Type 4/8), Feature 1; 2 - small chisel (Schibler Type 4/5), Feature 2; 3 - beamer (?) fragment, Feature 2; 4 - simple, broad rib chisel (Schibler Type 4/10), Spit 1/2; 5 small chisel (Schibler Type 4/5), Spit 1/2; 6 - ad hoc chisel (Schibler Type 4/8), Feature 3 82