Horváth Attila szerk.: Cumania 7. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1982)

Bökönyi S.: Animal remains from the excavations of the Bronze Age carthwork at Tiszaalpár

BY SÁNDOR BÖKÖNYI ANIMAL REMAINS FROM THE EXCAVATIONS OFTHE BRONZE AGE EARTHWORK AT TISZAALPAR (SUMMARY) The excavations of the Bronze Age earthwork Tiszaalpár (end of Early Bronze Age =Vatya culture) yielded a considerable amount of animal remains from which 1387 specimens could be identified. Among the identified remains bones of 19 animal species — 6 domestic mammals (cattle, sheep, goat, pig, horse, dog, 7 wild mammals (aurochs, red deer, roe deer, wild swine, badger, wolf, brown hare), 2 wild birds (goose, duck), 1 reptile (pond tortoise) and three fishes (carp, catfish, pike) occured. In the economy of the inhabitants the animal keeping played a much more important role than hunting did. The domestic — wild ratio was 85,80:14,20 (on the basis of the number of specimens) and 75,68:24,32 (on the basis of the number of individuals). Among the domestic animals caprovines are the most common closely followed by pig and cattle; horse and dog are rare. As for the wild animals red deer is the most common species, other wild animals are insignificant. Each domestic species consists of one single, however, highly variable breed. The cattle are represented mainly by longhorned, small and middle size animals, large individuals are extremely rare among them. The sheep are larger than the neolithic ones clearly belonging to the new sheep-wave which reached Eastern and Central Europe by the end of the Copper Age and the dawn of the Bronze Age. Their females have short, non-twisted horns („turbary sheep") the horns of the males are long, heavy, twisted, with a triangular cross-section („copper sheep"). Hornless sheep were not found in the site. The goat remains are so fragmented that they don't reveal anything about the type or size of the animals. The overwhelming majority of the pigs are large or at least middle size, only about one fifth of the population consists of small individuals. The horses are somewhat smaller than the average Bronze Age horse in Hungary. The smallest individuals of the dog population fall into the variation of the „turbary dog" but the majority consists of middle size and large animals, the latter ones being close to the wild wolves of the region. The one aurochs bone represents a middle size animal. The red deers are suspicuously small, the one roe deer bone doesn't reveal anything about the size of the animal. The wild swine bones come from a large boar, a middle size sow, and a subadult individual of undeterminable size. The one badger bone is from a rather small animal, one of the two wolves is of middle size, the other is a little larger. The 12 brown hare bones, point to a middle size and a large animal. About the birds and pond tortoise nothing can be said; as regards the fishes, the carp bones represent small and middle size animals, those of the catfish are from small-middle size and large and finally those of the pike are from small-middle size, middle size and large individuals. The exploitations of domestic animals were rather varied. The flesh of all was eaten (the proof for dogmeat consumption is a brain-skull with opened braincase), for pig this was the only exploitation type. The secondary use of cattle was their milk and draft power, that of sheep their wool. Goats were also milked. The horse yielded draft power, and dog served as herd- and watch-dog and -on a smaller scale

— as hunting companion too. (Im fact the „secondary" use of these two species pushed the primary one to the background.) 130