Szakács Sándor szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1990-1991 (Budapest, 1991)
TAKÁCS ISTVÁN: The history of pig (Sus scrofa dorn L.) butchering and the evidence for singeing on subfossil teeth
Fig. 15: Canine tooth and maxillary fragment damaged during singeing from the Avar period site of Hunya - Csárdavölgy (Excavator: B.M. Szőke; photo: LTakács) Many of them bear marks suggesting that singeing was carried out as well. In this society, with its highly developed material culture, animal breeding and exploitation went beyond the mundane demands of simple subsistence. At least, the well-to-do strata of society felt that food was supposed to rise to meet additional gastronomic requirements (See for example the feast of Trimalchio as described by Petronius). Burnt teeth were brought to light among others at Fenékpuszta, a IV.-V. century site near Keszthely (Excavators: K. Sági and I. Erdélyi; Fig. 16). Naturally, bacon must have been one of the important ingredients both in a veriety of sophisticated foods and in the everyday meals of the common people. Here the list must be finished, so that we can focus on the question of when singeing as a method for removing hair from the carcass first occurs. To date, the earliest evidence for hair singeing comes the late Neolithic (Tisza culture: late Neohthic) excavation at Öcsöd - Kováshalom (Excavator: P. Raczky;). The piece in question is a right mandible fragment from a sow: the tip of the canine is burnt (Bökönyi, personal communication). This find suggests, that hair singeing as part of pig processing dates back to earliest pig keeping times. In addition to osteological evidence, a few written sources and artistic representations are worth noting. These contribute more information to the problem of pig fattening, singeing, i.e. exploitation of bacon. According to Bökönyi, as early as the Neolithic pigs were being fattened, using surplus grain, kitchen refuse or acorns gathered in the forest (Note that pigs fattened with acorn develop fat tissues with a loose structure: it is opalesque and tears easily). In order to support this nypothesis, Bökönyi points out that all Neohthic pig figurines show fat animals 7 . On the basis of the study of several Bronze age pig figurines he arrived at the same conclusion (Fig. 17) 8 . He also quotes from the Odyssey, detailing how Aumaios kept the pigs (including fattened individuals in his charge. Elsewhere, a reference to singeing may be found in the same work 9 . In Homer's Iliad, Achilles offers a pig's back on the fork with hot fat to his guests 10 . In the form of figurines and decorated vases Bökönyi found further evidence from Greek and Roman times: "According to representations, the Greeks knew pig Fig. 16: The use of hair singeing is evidenced by a great number of pig teeth brought to light during the course of excavations at a Roman Castrum at Keszthely - Fenékpuszta (Hungarian and Soviet excavation directed by I. Erdélyi; photo: LTakács)
