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

Fig. 5 — 5. ábra. Skull fragments of hornless sheep — Szarvatlan juhok koponyarészletei. 1. Kunszállás-Alkotmány Tsz, 74. 1. 188; 2. Kunszentmiklós-Bak ér, 66. 3. 99. As Table 5 shows the sheep of the seven Sarmatian sites exceeded the average of the Migration Period sheep in Hungary that was just a little below 60 cm (Bökönyi, 1974). Also here as in the whole history of sheep in Hungary the interesting phenomenon occured that the withers height, determined from the length of the metatarsals, was generally higher than that based on the length of the metacarpals. The question is therefore, are these early sheep of the Carpathian Basin overgrown or is it simply that Zalkin's indexes need a certain revision? As for their state of preservation the pig bones of the seven sites certainly lag behind those of both former species. The whole pig bone sample only contains one almost complete skull (Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz), a whole mandible (Kunszentmiklós—Bak ér) and a measurable mandible fragment (Kunszállás —Alkotmány Tsz), all other bones are heavily fragmented and none of them is measurable. Unfortunately the only whole skull (Fig. 6) is from a 3 to 5 month old piglet, and gives therefore no valuable morphological data. The mandible (Fig. 7) immediately reveals that it comes from a small sow with very short head. Its teeth are small, its premolars are crowded, particularly on the left side. The measurable mandible fragment is from an even smaller individual, obviously from another sow. The small size of Migration Period pigs is well known. They were much smaller than the pigs of the Roman provinces. It is very probable that the larger Roman pigs did not occur in these Sarmatian sites and did not exert any particular influence on these Sarmatian pigs either. The horse bone sample is particularly good as it contains a whole skull (Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz), five whole long bones and several measurable bone fragments. The skull (Fig. 8) is almost complete, only a small part of its facial region and its basal region are missing. It was found (together with a mandible, spinal column, ribs and extremity bone fragments) under a little strange circumstances in the pit No. 1 of the Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz settlement. This pit yielded no pottery or other artefacts, only this in48