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

beginning a firm distinction could be made only in case of skulls and horn-cores, however, some authors tried to deny even such a possibility. Later studies resulted the determination of variation range limits in bone measurements of domestic and wild cattle. Nevertheless, there still remained individual cases (e. g. bones of strong domestic bulls, small aurochs cows and transitional individuals) in which a clear distinction could not be done. With the introduction of X-ray methods even some of these cases could be solved. Now, using metapodial indexes and particularly the length quotient (QL) one can obtain again new clues to the separation of wild and domestic cattle remains — and the numerous whole long bones of the Orjeg aurochs sample did a valuable job in this respect. However, a perfect distinction will probably never be possible, since wild and domestic cattle populations were connected in many different ways in the prehistoric times of the Old World, and sometimes it would have been hard to decide even about some living animals whether they belonged still to the wild form or already to the domesticated one. 32