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)
Fig. 5. A cattle bone bone with scalloped marks of filleting Fig. 6. Cattle shoulder-bone with hole where the shoulder was suspended during smoking 1993, 133-135; CHOYKE 1994-1995, 51-60). 75 The forts themselves mirror the situation found elsewhere in the province. Cattle bones at both sites seem to have been brought into the Castrum area in a processed form. Sheep or goat and pig seem to occur in roughly equal numbers within the fort however pig bone was much more frequently encountered in the vicus surrounding Albertfalva. (Tab. 3) Soldiers at both forts seem to have supplemented their meat diet with game including wild cattle (Bos primigenius Boj.), red deer (Cervus elephus L.), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L), hare, wild birds and fish. Animals and Draught work Cattle were used in plowing and hauling work. At Aquincum there are cow horncores from the Civil town mentioned above which are direct proof of yoking with indentations at their bases caused 75 VÖRÖS op. cit. by long term contact with the yoke. The horncores from oxen also show that this domestic species would have been used in plowing and hauling heavy loads where speed was not needed. Those settlements discussed above where draught and movement of men and goods would have been important include the Kaszásdűlő-Csikós utca villa where an extraordinarily high proportion of the bones came from smallish equids, probably mules. This picture is mirrored at another unpublished industrial villa at Mocsárosdűlő 2 km from the Kaszásdűlő Csikós utca villa site (VITEV) 76 This villa seems to have produced bricks. The yard of this second villa was strewn with the complete bones of horse and mule. Complete equid bones were also relatively common in the faunal materials of both of the military forts discussed above, Albertfalva and Campona. These animals were not eaten but the skins were probably removed and so the carcasses remained close to the settlements. Mules and mule breeding are known to be important in the Roman military system (Fig. 7) in the forum in Rome showing mules drawing a wagon in a military setting). Horses were ridden by officers and calvalrymen. They may be seen on numerous gravestones of soldiers with proudly arched necks compared to the more plebeian look of mules shown pulling wagons on family gravestones from around Aquincum. Goods from animals There are three by-products made from slaughtered animals whose traces can actually found in Aquincum. These include hide and hide processing as well as bone, antler and ivory carving. A large ditch excavated by the southern wall of the Civil Town contained the bones of many animals, mostly cattle. Typically for some kind of hide processing area are the accumulations of horncores and metapodials which is what was found here, mixed with some other food debris. 77 There has been some speculation that this was 76 Mocsárosdűlő: E. Márity excavation, Plan 7, Nr. 13.; Kaszásdűlő-Csikós utca: ZSIDI 1991.
