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

The bone samples also give certain clues regarding the exploitation of the animal species occurring in the seven sites. It can be stated e. g. that meat was the only use for pigs and the main one for sheep. The best evidence of this is that about 3/4 of the pigs and 2/3 of the sheep were killed in their juvenile or subadult age, and only 1/4 and 1/3 respectively were the adult breeding stock. (It is abvious that one needs a smaller breeding stock from the multipar pig than from the unipar sheep.) Interestingly enough, also some older individuals, 6 to 8 year old sows occur in the breeding stock of pigs (Kunszentmiklós-Bak ér). The adult and also subadult sheep were kept also for their wool and milk, however, there is no positive evidence for this. The role of cattle as meat animal was probably less significant : only 25 to 30 per cent of the cattle population were killed in their immature age. Milking seems to be an essential exploitation in cattle, nevertheless, one could hardly mistake that the main use of cattle was their draft power. Obviously cattle were the main draft animals of Sarmatian agriculture, and the occurrence of imported Roman oxen certainly strengthens this supposition: the Sarmatians wanted to acquire individuals of the larger, undoubtedly more productive breed as stronger draft animals and not for improving their domestic stock. It is very probable that horses were only occasionally eaten in these sites : the conspicuously high number of unbroken, whole bones, the lack of cut marks on the bones, and particularly the fact that the bones of young individuals (which have the tastiest meat) are always intact speaks for this. Horses served mostly as riding animals of the warriors, and since the Sarmatians were famous as horsemen it means a considerable number of horses. Some of the were used as draft animals. Dogs were not eaten at all. Man ceased eating dog meat in Europe with the end of the Bronze Age (Bökönyi, 1974). The greyhounds were used for hunting, first of all hare hunting (Hauck, 1950), the other dogs probably served as watch and herd dogs alike. Hens were probably kept for their eggs and meat as was customary in Classical times (Zeuner, 1963). Summary : In seven Sarmatian settlements of BácsKiskun County remains of 6 domestic (cattle, sheep, pig, horse, dog and hen) and 5 wild (aurochs, red deer, wild swine, brown hare and pond tortoise) animal species were unearthed. The frequency of domestic animals exceeded that of the wild ones by far. The most frequent species were alternatively cattle and sheep (there is no evidence for the occurrence of goat) among the domestic animals followed by pig and horse, and the rare dog and hen closed the row. The different animal species were represented mostly by small individuals of primitive type. Among cattle and horses, however, also animals imported from Roman Pannónia occurred belonging to iproved breeds of larger size, and among dogs greyhounds could be positively identified. The wild animals are the usual ones for the region and exclusively of small or of medium size. 62