Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Book Review
220 Book Review order from the topics point of view. It starts with a short but important writing of an Italian archaeozoologist, which is a proposal in restoration methods and retrieval of animal bones in the field. Then a change of topic: taphonomy of ceramic finds, written by a conservator. Then we can read about prehistoric finds: first about animal figurines, then bird remains - an article written by one of the editors and the greatest bird-bone expert, and then about sub-fossil finds of black rat, inserted in a complex presentation of these animals. Afterwards, a series of theoretical writings follow, synthesis articles, very easy to read and to enjoy not only for archaeozoologists: an overview of red deer from 3rd to 8th century AD; a presentation of human-animal relationship reflected in early medieval horse burials; a very readable article about “equestrian nomadic” traditions written in one of the editors’ unique style of storytelling scattered with illustrations; and another overall writing about military horse breeding between the 15th and 20th century, also with many illustrations. Then complete archaeozoological analyses follow: that of a Late Avar site with pastoral tradition conclusion; that of an Árpád Period settlement with huge amount of very useful metrical data; animal keeping in the Danube Region written by the honourable István Vörös; and the analysis of a great amount of early Modern Age animal remains. Turning the page, we meet a historians very interesting writing about animal transformation in early Modern Age witch-trials. Then we can read a synthesis article again, this time about sheep and goat in the 16th-17th century. After this, the articles slowly turn their faces towards the most discussed topic of worked bones. We can read a transient writing about 18th century cattle horns, part of them showing cut- and sawmarks. Then the reader has a very interesting experimental archaeology article written by a designer and a museologist, and this is about sheephorns functioning as material for bows. Other uncommon themes follow: the roman bone scabbard slides and Avar Period jar types made of bones. Next is an article about bone workshop debris, an illuminating comparison between Roman and Medieval times with very good photographs. A similar article follows, but specific for one particular 12th century site from Hungary, presenting a beautiful material. The last worked-bone article presents worked antler finds from the 16th-17th century, written by the third editor about a local (the home of these archaeozoological meetings) material. The collection closes with another synthesis article about animal powered mills. At the end of these outstanding articles, the reader can meet the authors “face to face”: besides their short introduction, the editors thought about presenting their pictures, too, in alphabetical order: Bartosiewitz László (archaeozoologist), Bartus Dávid (archaeologist), Choyke, Alice M. (archaeozoologist), Czeglédi Edit (archaeologist and psychologist), Csippán Péter (archaeozoologist), Daróczi-Szabó László (archaeozoologist), Daróczi-Szabó Márta (archaeozoologist), Farkas Nikolett (archaeologist), Fraser Sheena (archaeozoologist), Gál Erika (archaeozoologist), Gál Erika (archaeologist, conservator), Gerken Julia (archaeozoologist), Gróh Dániel (archaeologist), Kovács Zsófia Eszter (archaeozoologist), Kováts István (archaeozoologist), Körösi Andrea (archaeozoologist), Lichtenstein László (archaeologistarchaeozoologist), Nickel Réka (historian), Piovesan Laura (archaeologist- archaeozoologist), Szombathy Gábor (designer), Szőllősy Gábor (museologist), Szvath Márton (archaeologist), Tóth Gyula (conservator), Tugya Beáta (archaeozoologist), Vörös István (archaeozoologist). Hoping that the editors (or maybe other editors) just can’t help believing and will remain in search of entering dreams doing this amazing job - first of everything keeping a team together and feeding our hearts and minds - I recommend this volume to all archaeozoologists, future archaeozoologists, archaeologists, and all those hungry for knowledge who have ever been in touch with this science, and whoever plans to get in touch with it. Let me leave you with a funny thought (taken from Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan) which could be definitely told by any archaeological or archaeozoological find: “The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody. Thank you for using me, even though I didn’t want to be used by anybody.”
