Póczy Klára: Forschungen in Aquincum 1969- 2002 (Aquincum Nostrum 2. Budapest, 2003)

6. Die Wirtschaft Aquincums im Spiegel der neuen Funde - 6.3. Animals and Roman lifeways in Aquincum (Alice M. Choyke)

from game appear on Pannonian sites). There are indications that the Emperor Hadrian, during his tenure as governor of Pannonian province, hunted boar there

26 using hunting dogs. Dogs were also used from time to time in cultic rituals

27 and appeared as symbols of death and healing.

28 Cats (along with domestic rabbit) are also found for the first time in this region on Roman sites. They were probably used as much for killing vermin in the close quarters of towns as pets. There were exceptionally large numbers of cat bones recovered during the excavations at the town of Tác-Gorsium.

29 Their bones are small and, aside from the fact that they may not have been particularly common animals in the province, rough excavation techniques mean that they are rarely encountered in faunal materials from this time. Three domestic bird species were exploited by the Romans in Pannónia: domestic hen (Gallus domesticus L.), goose (Anser domesticus L.) and domestic pigeon (Columba domesticus L.). Chickens were brought by the Scythians to the Carpathian Basin and taken up by the Celts. Roman chicken breeds were larger than aboriginal ones which may have weighed between one and one and half kilograms. Today, a breed of black chicken found in Romania with a live weight of around 1.5 kilos are thought to be the descendents of Roman chickens.

30 The Roman birds could weigh as much as two kilo.

31 Varro and Columella wrote down accurate instructions for their keeping, forage and the construction of hen houses although traces of these are not preserved 26 FITZ, J. op. cit. 324. 27 Vörös, I., A Ritual Red Deer Burial from the Celtic-Roman Settlement at Szakály in Transdanubia. ActaArch Hung 38 (1986) 31-40. 28 Toynbee op. cit., 122-124., descibes the votive offerings with depictions of dogs on them left by pilgrins at the cult center for healing of the Roman-Celtic God Nodens in Gloucestershire in Britain. 29 BÖKÖNYI op. cit. 65. 30 Dr. Miklós Mézes (Szent István Agricultural University, Gödöllő), personal communication. This breed of chickens, in addition to its small size, is genetically distinct from all other modern chicken breeds in the region. 31 BÖKÖNYI op. cit. 94. in the archaeological material. Goose bones are much less common in the faunal assemblages of Pannonian sites than those of chicken. Again, we hear of goose from Varro and Columella and indeed this bird species is mentioned quite often by Antique authors. Romans may have introduced force feeding of geese to produce enlarged livers. Goose fat was used in many medicines. Finally, although we know that Romans kept domestic pigeons, their relatively small bones are exceedingly rare on sites in the province. This may be because they were actually rare, their bones were somehow destroyed during food processing or they are not being recovered in the absence of screening. Domestic pigeon remains have been found elsewhere in the empire, however,

32 especially where care has been taken to screen.

33 The most common wild animal species found at provincial sites is Red deer (Cervus elaphus L.). It is likely that a combination of climatic changes and shrinking environments relative to expanding agricultural territories reduced the deer population. The Celts hunted this animal widely and it appeared to have had some place in Celtic mythology. Sacrifices of red deer have been found buried in pits on Celtic-Roman sites in the province.

34 In Roman times, it ceased to be an important meat animal in the province and was hunted by the upper classes for sport. Many of the remains from this species occurs in the form of fragments of the antler rack which stags shed in the Spring. A number of workshops with half-finished objects made from antler,

35 as well as 32 Schibler, J. - Furger, A., Die Tierknochenfunde aus Augusta Raurica (Grabungen 1955-1974). Forschungen in Augst, Band 9, Augst, 1988, 22. 33 LAUWERIER op. cit. 22. A sieving experiment was carried out by this Dutch researcher on soil from five pits at the Roman perod site of Nijmegen. Various bird species were recovered along with fish remains that belonged to five species. 34 VÖRÖS op. cit. 31, 40. 35 Choyke, A. M., Modified animal bone. In: (D. Gabler ed.) The Roman fort of Acs-Vaspuszta (Hungary) on the Danubian limes. Part II. BAR 531, Oxford, 1989, 624-632. Vörös, I., CamponaNagytétény római tábor állatcsontmaradványai [The Animal Bone Remains from the Roman Fort at Campona-Nagytétény]. FolArch 40 (1989) 75-118 here