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)

Conclusions The work on the many sided relationship between the human population and their animals is ongoing. As more and more material is studied, it is expected that the picture of how animals were used in the town and on the villa-farms in the surrounding territory. The various social classes and the different ethnic groups that made up the pluralistic society of most Roman towns also left their mark on dietary traditions and, with luck, patterns in species proportions and body part distribution will emerge which can be related to discrete parts of the town and the settlements surrounding it. Altogether, animals were an integral part of Roman life. A better understanding of the way they were exploited and viewed at this particular site will help us to escape the 'ideal' and normative picture offered by antique authors and develop a three-dimensional view of how Romans and the people they conquered adapted, lived together and thrived for almost 400 years in the Pannonian environment. Alice M. Choyke