Budapest Régiségei 30. (1993)

TÖRTÉNET, TOPOGRÁFIA = GESCHICHTE, TOPOGRAPHIE - Choyke, Alice M.: Animal bones from the Budapest-Albertfalva vicus 1977 excavations = Állatcsontok az albertfalvai vicus 1977 évi ásatásából 133-135

Alice M. CHOYKE ANIMAL BONES FROM THE BUDAPEST-ALBERTFALVA VICUS 1977 EXCAVATIONS During the summer of 1977, excavations from the area surrounding the camp housing Roman auxiliary units brought to light a small assemblage of animal bones. The site is located in the southwestern part of Budapest known as Albertfalva. The bones themselves come from a level which has been dated from the beginning of the II century to the middle decades of the same century. These 40 bones originate from the vicus, a civilian habitation area associated with the army. In June of 1977, two cervical vertebrae from cattle (one of them an epistropheus) were found along with a proximal first phalanx. A sheep mandible fragment was also found at 18 Hunyadi János street, west of the electric line. By the tenth of that month, the northern parts of surface I had yielded fragments of an adult dog cranium and maxilla as well as a right goat mandible from a mature individual at a depth of 80-100 cm. On July 22, Pit 1 was excavated. A secondary pit 'A' dug into it contained two horse bones from adult individuals at a depth of 20 to 40 cm. One of these was a distal radius. A distal adult horse or ass tibia was also found with it. The lower portion of the same pit yielded cattle cranium fragments (the zygomatic part of the right orbit, a jugular process and an oral mandible fragment) as well as a proximal part of a first phalanx. Other cattle bones from the bottom of this pit included a distal adult humerus with butchering marks on the ventral surface as well as a distal metatarsus. A right domestic pig mandible with the ramus broken off came from an adult individual. With the exception of the two horse limb bone distal fragments and the dog skull, the material may be TABLE 1 Measurements Epistropheus (Axis) - measurements (after von den DRIESCH, 1976) Cattle (Bos t.) BFct SBV 105,9 56,7 Cattle (Bos t.) Long bone measuruments (after BÖKÖNYI, 1984) 1. greatest length 2. width proximal epiphysis 3. depth proximal epiphysis 4. smallest width of diaphysis characterized as typical kitchen refuse dominated as elsewhere in Pannonian bone material by cattle. Specimens of sheep, goat, pig, horse (or ass) and dog were also found in small numbers. These are the domestic animals typical of Roman sites in this area. There was no evidence for chicken or game consumption on the basis of this very small sample. The presence of horse bone is suggestive, in light of faunal material from later excavations in other parts of the same site. Since bones of small horses, or even more likely ass, were found in unusual quantities in that material and ass was an important transport animal for the Roman military, it is suggested here that the occurance of ass bone also reflects the military nature of the encampment surrounding the fort at Albertfalva. Butcher marks at this site are less standardized compared to faunal material from the civil town at Aquincum suggesting that animals were slaughtered and butchered here by competent nonprofessionals. Absent are the chopped joints, limb bones and short bones which characterize the professional butcher work at more urbanized centers where specialized labor would have been the norm. Quantitative analysis of the proportion of species to each other is neither practical or justified statistically. As far as the very few available measurements suggest (see Table 1) all animals were of a medium size. The most interesting specimen in the assemblage is the single pig bone, a right side mandible from a small domestic female pig. A fourth 'molar' tooth occurs aborally to the 3rd molar which is considered pathological. In spite of this abnormality, the animal lived into full maturity. 5. smallest depth of diaphysis 6. width distal epiphysis 7. depth distal epiphysis Distal humerus 5. 6. 7. 87,0 mm 86,4 mm Distal metatarsus 30,7 mm 65,0 mm 37,8 mm Sheep (Ovis aries L.) Mandible measurements (after von den DRIESCH, 1976) 9. Length premolar row 133