Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 1. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1972)

S. Bökönyi: Őstulok (Bos primigenius Boj) leletek az Őrjeg tőzeglápjaiban

77. 5 tarsal bones (65. 3. 148); two of them damaged ; 78. 9 — 6 left, 3 right — metatarsals (65. 3. 149); adult; damaged; 79. right metatarsal (69. 3. 150); subadult; distal epiphysis separated; 80. right distal metatarsal fragment (65. 3. 151); subadult; 81. 2 ossa phalangis I (65. 3. 152); adult; one's diaphysis is covered by exostoses ; 82. 5 ossa phalangis II (65. 3. 153); adult; two damaged; The 216 aurochs remains represent 14 individuals. One of them is juvenile, two are subadult, 10 adult and one is mature. The overwhelming majority of the remains are from bulls. Only a distal humerus fragment (69. 1. 15) with a distal breadth of 98 mm; 2 radii (65. 3. 126) with greatest lengths of 345 mm and 357 mm and proximal breadth of 103 and 104 mm; a metacarpal (65. 3. 132) with a length of 230 and smallest breadth of 43; a proximal metacarpal fragment (65. 3. 133) with a proximal breadth of 74 and a smallest breadth of 43 ; a distal tibia fragment (65. 3. 142) with a distal breadth of 78; and a metatarsal (65. 3. 149) with a greatest length of 274 and a smallest breadth of 33.5 mm are the remains which came with all probability from cows. Besides the aurochs the site yielded the following vertebrate fauna: domestic cattle — Bos taurus L. domestic sheep — Ovis aries L. domestic goat — Capra hircus L. red deer — Cervus elaphus L. roe deer — Capreolus capreolus L. wild swine — Sus scrofa fer. L. horse — Equus sp. wild ass — Asinus cf. hydruntinus Reg. otter — Lutra lutra L. duck — Anas sp. birds — Aves ind. European pond tortoise — Emys orbicularis L. catfish — Silurus glanis L. The site of Kecel—Rózsaberki dűlő yielded the almost complete skeleton (with skull) of an adult aurochs bull (catalog number in the Hungarian National Museum: 65. 8. 1.—23. Z). The skull (Figs. 8—9) is in perfect shape with only minor damages, the vertebrae are a little fragmented and almost all ribs are broken. On the other hand all extremity bones are in the best shape of preservation. From Kecel—Tőzegtelep the following aurochs bones were collected (specimens with catalog numbers in parentheses are in the Hungarian National Museum, the other ones in the Arany János School) : 1. skull ; adult ; çf ; mended, facial part fragmented, ca. 2/3 of the left horn-core missing (Figs. 10—11.); 2. 2 — left and right — horn-core fragments (60. 4. 1. Z.); adult; rf; 3. right distal scapula fragment (60. 4. 2. Z); adult ; articular end damaged ; 4. right radius with ulna fragment; adult; proximal epiphysis damaged; 5. os phalangis I (60. 4. 3. Z); subadult; proximal epiphysis incompletely fused with the diaphysis. The six bones are from at least tour individuals. The skull represents one, each horn-core fragment is from a different animal, and the subadult toe bone is from a fourth one. Besides the skull and horn-core fragments also the scapula and radius are probably from bulls. With the aurochs bones also 12 bones of an ass species, probably Asinus hydruntinus Reg. were collected in the site. As already mentioned the aurochs bone sample of the Orjeg peat-bogs is one of the best in Europe. Its richness in cranial fragments, horn-cores and whole extremity bones is particularly important: besides the three whole skulls it contains 3 larger skull tragments with horn-cores, 5 whole horn-cores, several larger horn-core fragments, an almost complete skeleton and as many as 41 whole long bones. All these provide a considerable amount or information on the craniology, size variation, possible race problems etc. of the population. Since domestic cattle remains were also unearthed from one of the sites (Szabadszállás—Tőzegtelep), a parallel can be drawn between the domestic and wild cattle populations of the area. Furthermore this aurochs sample can be compared to other subfossil ones from the Carpathian Basin and the neighbouring territories. And, at last, using the whole long bones, particularly the metapodials, one can attempt to determine differences in their proportions caused by the domestication. Unfortunately one doesn't know too much about the ecology or aurochs. One thing is certain: it was 22