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)

location of these workshops is unknown, remains of debitage or half-finished pieces indicates their general locations. (Fig. 9) Horse and cattle autopodial long bones were most often worked in addition to red deer antler. A brief review of the Roman objects from Aquincum

79 and the Roman period objects in the National Museum of Hungary

80 show that they range from the very elaborate to crudely carved imitations made at home from available bones. This stands in interesting contrast to the bones from the Roman fort of AcsVaspuszta which more closely resembled prehistoric or Sarmatian tools.

81 There were few ornaments and the tools retained many of the features of the bone such as the epiphyses. Although these objects from Aquincum are often so heavily worked that all identifying features of the raw material are removed from the bone, new research has shown that some of the microscopic features related to the structure of the particular material are retained.

82 On this basis it has been determine that at least 30% of the objects are made from red deer antler. Red deer was apparently not hunted at Aquincum but, as mentioned 78 Maltby, M., Urban Rural Variations in the Butchering of Cattle in Romano-British Hampshire. In: (D. Serjeantson and T. Waldron eds.) Diet and Crafts in Towns, BAR British Series 199, Oxford, 1989, 75-106, here 89. 19 This research into the Aquincum bone tools is ongoing by the author and Mária Bíró. 80 Bíró, M., The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici Series Archaeologicica II, Budapest, 1994. 81 Choyke, A., Worked animal bone at the Sarmatian site of Gyoma 133. In: (ed. by A. Vaday) Culture and Landscape Changes in South-East Hungary, Budapest, 1996, 307-322. As well as Choyke op. cit. 1989, 624-632. 82 DESCHLER-ERB op. cit. 33-47. A microscope with magnification of up to 80 X should be sufficent to make these identifications. sheep/goat Fig. 8. The percentile contribution of animals at the Firemen's' Headquarters previously, there must have been organized gatherings of its antler each Spring. Interestingly, half finished pieces made from antler do appear scattered throughout Aquincum but no concentrations of workshop debris have yet come to light here except for the antler workshop discovered in the military fort at Campona (VÖRÖS, 1989, 85).

83 It contained antler burrs with the beam sawn off as well as plaques carved from the beam and ready for further working, possibly into comb sections. Animals in rituals Animals played their own part in religion and ritual at Aquincum. From time to time a site is excavated where the bone material is clearly related to this type of activity. In the 1980s the house of the Tribunus Laticlavius was excavated 83 Vörös I., Campona-Nagytétény római tábor állatcsontmaradványai [The Animal Bone Remains from the Roman Fort at Campona-Nagytétény] FolArch 40 (1989) 75-118, here 85.