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. 7 — 7. ábra. Pig mandible — Sertésállkapocs. Kunszentmiklós-Bak ér, 66. 3. 99. complete horse skeleton therefore the dating of the horse bones in not certain. Since the excavation of the whole site produced nothing but Sarmatian finds, however, one has to assume that the date of the horse skeleton is Sarmatian too. The skull that is from an adult, ca. 6 to 7 year old stallion is small, in fact it is one of the smallest subfossil horse skulls in Hungary. Its forehead is medium wide (unfortunately its basal length cannot be measured and its frontal index could therefore not be determined), its profile is considerably concave in the height of the not too spacious orbits, and at the same time it is rather convex just behind them. The braincase is well-arched, the occipital squama leans well backward. The teeth are small with long protoconi and rather simple enamel patterns. There can be seen two tiny holes just orally from both P

1} they are alveoli of the so called wolf teeth, the teeth themselves fell out post mortem. The skull as a whole strongly resembles the horse skulls of the Period of the Hungarian Conquest. Particularly its profile being concave before the orbits and protruding behind them and the form of its occipital squama are very similar to those of the early Hungarian horses. Interestingly also its small size corresponds with that of the early Hungarian horses (Bökönyi, 1974). To a certain extent also the skull found in the Roman castrum of Intercisa-Dunaújváros just on the other side of the Danube River has a certain resemblance to this, although, it is much larger. On the basis of the characteristics mentioned above the horse skull of Kunszállás—Alkotmány Tsz belongs to the eastern horse group. Also some of the extremity bones come from small horses (e. g. from Kunpeszér and Szabadszállás — Józan) but the overwhelming majority are from larger horses, some of which represent — under the circumstances of the Migration Period — unusually large individuals. The withers heights determined by Kiesewalter's method (1888) from the lengths of the long bones can be seen in Table 6. Site hone Length of Withers bone (mm) height (cm) Kunszállás — Alkotmány Tsz radius 340.0 143.2 Kunszentmiklós — Bak ér metacarpus 224.0 139.7 Kunszentmiklós — Bak ér tibia 357.0 151.7 Kunszállás — Alkotmány Tsz metatarsus 267.0 137.0 Kunszentmiklós — Bak ér metatarsus 268.0 138.0 Table 6. Long bone lengths and withers heights of horse. 50