Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 4. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1976)

S. Bökönyi: Szarmata lelőhelyek állatcsont leletei Bács-Kiskun megyéből

bandry of a people which had given up their nomadic way of life shortly before. In this domestic fauna species which can be easily driven (cattle, sheep and horse) represent the overwhelming majority, and animals connected with the settled life (pig and hen) are much rarer. The ratio of sheep in particular is high, exceeding by far even their ratio in Hungarian villages of the period of the Árpád Dynasty (Bökönyi, 1974). It demonstrates very well how the Sarmatians clung to their old way of life, while the presence of pigs and hens is certainly a proof of their settled life. / 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cattle 2 2 4 7 2 3 6 Sheep/goat 1 2 7 7 2 1 7 Pig 0 1 4 6 3 0 3 Horse 0 1 3 4 0 1 3 Dog 0 0 4 3 0 0 5 Hen 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 Domestic animals 3 6 23 27 7 5 26 Aurochs 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Red deer 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 Wild swine 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Brown hare 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Pond tortoise 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Wild animals 0 0 0 2 2 1 3 total 3 6 23 29 9 6 29 Table 4. Number of individuals. (The same key as in Table 1.) The objects of hunting were exclusively herbivorous animals, bones of predators cannot be found in any of the samples. As regards the different species, it can be stated that the cattle bone sample is rather well balanced. Although, it contains only a single calf skull (in fragments) which cannot be used for breed determination because of the juvenile age of the animal, and a right half of the skull (without the frontal region, its most important part for the determination of the breed) of an adult individual, seven whole and almost complete horn-cores (unfortunately only three of them are measurable), seven whole long bones and several measurable bone fragments provide enough informations about the species. The adult skull fragment (Fig. 1) is from a small individual, whose breed cannot be determined (see above). Also one of the horn-cores cannot be evaluated from this viewpoint but the remaining six uniformly show the characteristics of the brachyceros type : they are short, slender, slightly curved. Five of them are probably from cows (see the most typical two on Fig. 2), and the sixth one with somewhat larger dimensions and less curved form is possibly that of a bull. The majority of the extremity bones point to small or medium size cattle, nevertheless, also remains of larger individuals occur, e. g. two mandible fragments with 38.5 and 39 mm long M

3 from Kunszállás —Alkotmány Tsz, and a metatarsal with 253 mm greatest length from Szabadszállás—Józan. In order to be able to determine the withers height of these Sarmatian cattle, one has to start out from the greatest length of the metapodials. Whole metacarpals were not found. Out of the four measurable whole metatarsals one (from Kunpeszér) points to an individual with a withers height of 107.8 cm with Matolcsi's index (Matolcsi, 1968), another one (from Kunszentmiklós—Bak ér) is from an individual of 120.9 cm withers height, the third one (from Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz) is from an animal of 122.5 cm withers height, and finally the fourth one (from Szabadszállás—Józan) represents an individual of 138.4 cm withers height. Indirectly the withers height can also be determined on the basis of the greatest length of other long bones. So the radius of 267.5 mm length (from Kunszentmiklós—Bak ér) and the tibia of 322 mm length (from Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz) agree in size with the bones of the Avar cattle unearthed in Kiskunmajsa

—Kőkút, also in Bács-Kiskun County (Bökönyi, 1974), and since the withers height of the latter cattle could be determined (from the length of their metapodials) as 115 to 116 cm, also the above mentioned radius and tibia can be from cattle of roughly similar size. At the same time, another whole tibia from Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz with its 357 mm length represents a considerably larger individual whose withers height certainly exceeded even 130 cm. While the above mentioned individual of Kunpeszér is a very small animal, obviously a gracile cow as is indicated by its low (18.8) Nobis-index (Nobis, 1954), the cattle of 120.9 and 122.5 cm withers height represent the average of cattle of the seven sites. On the other hand, the large individuals with a 4Д