Folia archeologica 35.

HUNTED MAMMALS IN THE ISTÁLLÓSKC5 CAVE 17 B. — Behind the big hearth in the second section of the middle part of the cave: In Layer III

h;s

s — the ratio of the head region strongly decreased 179 %, a high ration of the dry limb bones 129 % and of the meaty limb bones 198 % can be observed, that of the bones remained in the hides and of phalanges is 66 %. It is interesting that the highest trunk region ratio of the cave — 34 % — was found in the hearth. In Layer IV

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8 — the ratio of the head region is the lowest here 158 %, highest are the ratios of the dry limbs 176 % and of the meaty limbs 103 %; that of the bones remained in the hides and of phalanges is 63 %. INDIVIDUALS AND THE SLAUGHTER AGE OF HUNTED MAMMALS — К G S OF MEAT The individual number of hunted animals, their slaughter age groups and the useful meat quantity produced by them per layers are on Tables 6, 7, 8. In the cave were found 777 hunted animal individuals; their percent distribution shows the following: cave bear 74 %, Carnivores 10 %, Herbivores 9 %, blue hare 7 %. The number of juvenile animals is few except among cave bears. The distribution of the cave bear individuals according to age is represented on Table 7. 304 individuals of the cave bear (53 %) were in Layer I. In this layer the number of foetus and juvenile individuals 184 (60 %) exceeds the number of adult individuals 120 (40 %). The conspicuously high mortality of foetus-juvenile individuals refers to natural death, their separation from cultural-zoological material is, however, impossible as I mentioned before. Considering the whole cave bear remains of Layer I as a unity this approximation raises the individual number of hunted cave bears but means only a minimum difference at the estimation of the whole meat quantity (Tables 7, 8). The occurrence of young cave bear individuals is only of 33 % in Layer III and of 15 % in Layer IV. The most likely meat quantity gained from all the mammal remains in the Istállóskő Cave is 53 064 kgs. 87,72 %—46 549 kgs of the eaten or potentially eatable meat quantity was yielded by cave bears and only its 12,28 %—6 515 kgs — is originated from other hunted animals, namely 9,40 %—4 990 kgs from the Herbivores; 2,62 %—1 395 kgs from the Carnivores and 0,26 %—130 kgs from the blue hare. The vertical changes in the quantity of meat given by these additional hunted animals are determined by their individual number and by the size of the animals (Table 8). 2 Folia Archacologica XXXV. 1984.