Folia archeologica 52.

Vörös István: Ló az Árpád-kori Magyarországon

Ló л/. ÁRPÁD-KORI MAGYARORSZÁGON 209 brae (7 vert. cervicalis, 18 vert. thoracalis, 6 vert. lumbalis, 4 (!) vert. sacralis (Fig. 4.), I I vert. caudalis), 72 pieces of ribs [36 (18 pairs of) costae, 36 (18 pairs of costal cartilage)], 7 stenebrae; fore limb - 40 pieces: scapula-humerus-radius-ulna, 7 carpus, 3 mc, ph. I—II

—III., 3 sesamoideum sin. et dext. (Fig. 5.); hind limb - 40 pieces: pelvis-femur-patella-tibia-fibula, 6 tarsus, 3 mt, ph. I

—II

—III., 3 sesamoideum sin. et dext. (Fig. 6.). The skeleton of the Csengele horse has been reconstructed by László Sótonyi, retired university professor from Mosonmagyaróvár between 1998-2000 with great professional care and experience and erected mounted on an internal frame (Fig. I.). The biological age of the horse can be estimated 7.5 years (adultus) based on the condition of the dentition and the use-wear of the grinding surface; its sex could be identified on the basis of the large and well developed caninus as male. The masticating surface of the row of molars is undulating, the chewing plane of the lower and upper P2 are steeply and obliquely worn. The shape and dimensions of the horse can be characterised on the basis of the head (dimensions of the skull and the mandible given in 'Fables 1-2.), as well as the bones ('lable 3.) and the complete skeleton ('Fable 4.). The skeleton of the horse was lean and light. The wedgeshaped head was large, the neck and the back long. Compared to the trunk, the limbs were thin and slender. The fore cannon (mc) was medium slender, its index of thickness is 15.5. The hind cannons (mt) are 18% longer than the front ones. The knee is thick, the hind hock (ankle - tarsus) long and wide. The hoof-bones (ph. III.) are small. In the fore and the hind legs, respectively, the dimensional ratios of the long bones differ essentially. The withers height calculated from the length of the long bones by Vitt's method (1952) was 143.0 cm, i.e. 13.6 hands. This value correspond to height 'measured by stick'. The live weight of the Csengele horse can be estimated about 300 kg. The most important height and length dimensions of the erected Csengele horse skeleton are given in Table 4: the oblique trunk length of the horse, measured on the skeleton, is 145.0 cm. The length of the living horse must have been, as a matter of fact, longer. Adding the thickness of the intervertebral discs between the vertebrae (according to Sótonyi's calculation, 9.0 cm) we get 154.0 cm, 107% of the withers height. On some of the bones of the horse, we can observe pathological surface alterations as well as exostosis and ossification due to advanced age. Mandibula - the widening surface in the lower third of the angle at the right side jaw (ang. mandibulae) is deeply marred and deformed. On the arched edge of the right side mandibula angulus, we can observe signs of osteosarcoma (erroneously described from the left side, MOJZF.S 2001. 349., Figs. 3-4.). Wavy grinding surface on the teeth (Fig. 3./ 2.). Distortions of the spinal column: 1., between the corpuses of the IV

1'

1 and the III

t

h lumbar vertebrae, pegs of bone were formed bone-rods (exostosis). Spondylosis. 2., between the right side oblique proc. transverstts of the Vth and IVth lumbar vertebrae, thic k bone rods (exostoses) terminating in pseudoarthrosis were formed. Spondylarthrosis. 3., The Vlth lumbar vertebra is distorted and deformed, ossified to the sacrum I. (Fig. 7.). The processus transversus of the Vlth lumbar vertebra and the light wing of the I. sacral bone (ala sacralis) is permanently grown together (ankylosis), deformed. Spondylarthrosis. 4., on the right side of the sacrum, the ventral surface of sacrum I. is distorted. On both sides of the fore cannons the 3

t

h metacarpal bone (mc3) and the 2nd (mc2) and 4

,

h (mc4) metacarpal bones are grown together (ossified). Exostoses intermetacarpales: on the surface of the left side upper (superior) lateralis sesamoideum. It is common knowledge in hippology and horse anatomy (e.g., KOVÁCS 1958, 43.) that the Arab horses are sometimes short in one lumbar vertebra, having only