Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 23 (1978) (Pécs, 1979)

Régészet - Vörös, István: Description of the Animal Bones from the Early Bronze Age Settlement at Szava

140 ISTVÄN VÖRÖS viduals of great-average size (Table III.). Among the morphological characteristics of the skull is important the „roof — like" reliefed crista frontalis aboralis in the median-sagittalis level. The collum corni is elonged, the basis of the horncore is wide and relatively thick, by the individuals of adultus age it is flattened in dorso-ventralis direction. Though its lenght cannot be measured, it must have been longer than the horncore of the brachyceros type. The sutura frontalis is reliefed, the front-bone is convex in anteriolateralis direction. The fossa temporalis is narrow, convex. The condition of the skull-fragments made possible the identification of the type of cattle. On the explored part of the settlement at Szava the catties belonged to the frontosus-type (Bos taurus frontosus Nilsson). The earlier occurence of the frontosus type cattle is known from the Copper Age

4 (mistakenly mentioned from the Neolithic as well

5

) in Hungary. The distribution of the osteological material of cattle by body-regions (using the method devised by M. Kretzoi)

6 shows that the bones derived from heterogeneous parts. The various bodyregions are differently represented in the osteological material, according to their usefulness. Among the cattle bones by far the most abundant are those of the trunkregion (B), the „meatylimb" region (C) and the head-region (A). Only 15,68% of the whole material consists of bones from the „dry-limb" region (D) and phalanges (E). The frequent appearence of the bones from the trunk-region (B) makes evident that the catties were slaughtered and roughly carved up on the spot, i.e. on the settlement-area. One of the catties (2,5%) was slaughtered as maturus, 32 individuals (82,5%) in adultus age, 1 (2,5%) in subadultus, 4 individuals (10,25%) in infant age were killed. The utilizable meat quantity produced by the 39 catties, judging from the age-group calibration, must have been about 9300 kg. Pig Among the domestic animals from the excavated part of the settlement the pig is represented on the second place with 25 individuals. The only characterisation of the pig-stock we can establish on the basis of the few osteometrical data, that 4 Bökönyi S.

—

M. Kubasiewicz: Neolithische Tiere Polens und Ungarns in Ausgrabungen. I. Das Hausrind. Wydz. N?.uk. Przyrod.-Roln. VIII. 1 (Budapest

— Szczecin 1961) 26—27. 5 Matolcsi ].: A szarvasmarha testnagyságának változása a történelmi korszakokban Magyarország területén. (The Changes of Body-Size of Cattle by Ages on the Territory of Hungary.) Agrártörténeti Szemle (1968) 16. 6 Kretzoi M.

—Gábori-Csánk V.: Zoologie Archéologique. In: Gábori-Csánk V.: La Station du Paléolithique Moyen d'Érd-Hongrie. (Budapest 1968) 230. it consists of great-average size pigs. The accumulation of the respective body-regions on the site is well represented by the distribution of the pig-bones with M. Kretzoi-s method

7 (Table П.). Most frequent are the bones of the head region (A) and those of the „meaty-limb" region (C). The bones of the trunk-region (B) and the „drylimb" region (D) are represented equally. Only 16% of the pig-bone material falls to the bones of the „dry-limb" region and the phalanges. Judging from the horizontal accumulation of the trunk-region bones can be supposed that only a few pigs were killed on the spot. The other individuals were slaughtered some other place and the forelegs and hindlegs together with the scapulae and thing-parts were brought to the settlement after the limb extremities had been resected. 2 pigs (8%) were slaughtered as maturus, 12 individuals (48%) as adultus, 6 individuals (24%) in juvenilis, 2 individuals (8%) in infant and 3 individuals (12%) in neonatus age. It was about 625 kg of utilizable meat produced by the 25 pigs. Caprovines The third farming live stock is formed by the caprovines with 16 individuals. Considering the difficult differentiation of the goat- and sheepbones we cannot definitively establish the species in every case, but it seems likely that the caprovine-bones of the Szava material derived from sheeps. The only undamaged sheep-bone, a dext. metatarsus with a measurable length suppliel us with the possibility of Teichert's calibration

8 of the withers height. It is 694 mm and correspond to the measurements of the Bronze Age large sised sheep.

9 The distribution of the osteological materials of sheep by body regions

10 (Table II.) differs from these of other domestic animals described above. Most numerous is the group of bones belonging to the body region most valuable from the point of view of consumption, i. e. the „meatylimb" region (C). Though two cervical vertebrae and a pelvis was found on the site too, it can be established that the shee were slaughtered and roughly carved out of the excavated part of the settlement. The absence of the phalanges and the relatively great number of the metapodia suggest that the sheep-extremities were brought to the settlement for consumption after the resection of the limb-extremities. 9 individuals (56,25%) were slaughtered in adultus, 2 individuals (12,5%) in ju7 Ibidem. 8 M. Teichert: Osteometrische Untersuchungen zur Berechnung der Widerristhöhe bei Schafen. In: A. T. Clason: Archaeozoological studies. (1975) 63. Table 4. 9 Bökönyi S.: History of domestic mammals in Central and Eastern Europe. (Budapest 1974) 169. 10 See Note 6.