A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve, 1984/85-1. (Szeged, 1986)

Régészet és határterületei - Bartosiewicz László: Az állatcsontok eloszlási rendszere avar temetkezésekben

TÁBLÁZATOK JEGYZÉKE Table 1 : A cross tabulated comparison between faunal material from settlements vs. cemeteries. Table 2: Bone frequencies in the 41 graves of the cmetery at Szegvár—Szőlőkalja (Szarvasmarha a—

b—

с = cattle, juh vagy kecske a—b—

с = sheep/goat, sertés a—

b = pig, házityúk = domestic hen Table 3: Frequency patterns of bone combinations in the cemetery at Sopronkőhida. Three dimensional combinations are listed separately. For species names see Table 2. Table 4: Rotated factor matrix on the material from Sopronkőhida with factor loadings exceeding 0.25. Table 5: Correlation matrix of the variables recorded at Szegvár—Szőlőkalja (Láb mellett = find near leg, törzs mellett = find near body, nem = sex of deceised). Table 6: Latent roots and commonalities on the basis of the first five factors. Table 7: Unrotated factor loading matrix illustrating the logical relationship between latent roots and commonalities. Table 8: Rotated factor matrix of the Szegvár—Szőlőkalja cemetery. Graphic reperesentation is shawn in Figures 3 and 4. ANIMAL OFFERING DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS IN AVAR BURIALS László Bartosiewicz Information concerning domestic animals of the Migration Period comes largely from animal offerings in Avar (567—800 A. D.) cemeteries in Hungary which offer a wide range of zoological variabiilty and mortuary behavior. This paper attempts to summarize the most important quantitative tendencies characteristic for the combined distribution of animal bones from various species. These bones also represent body parts of different meat value (Uerpmann's classification). The bones of cattle, pig and ovicaprids from the Szegvár—Szőlőkalja Avar cemetery were all subdivided into „a", „b" and „c" classes to refine the descriptive power of the variables, while skeletons of domestic hen were treated as a single variable. Aside from the zoological data, basic external evidence associated with bone deposition were also recorded. These include: the sex of the buried person and the location of the animal bones in the grave. These latter were treated as dummy variables, while raw counts of the animal bones were analyzed. The twelve variables were subjected to a factor analysis aimed at outlining, the basic patterns of the bones' combined occurrence inconnection with the primary considerations of mortuary behavior. Although decision-making could not directly be studied, the heavily fragmented faunal material from Szegvár—Szőlőkalja revealed the following factors : Factor 1 : Animal bones associated with the sex of the buried person (male burials : ovicaprid „b" and cattle „c" bones ; female burials : cattle „b" bones) Factor 2: Location of bones (bones were put either in the lower or in the upper half of the grave relative to the skeleton. Occurrence of bones in both sections is rare. Pig „b" class bones were most consistently placed near the legs) Factor 3 : Vertebrae of ruminants (the simultaneu osoccurrence of cattle ad ovicaprid vertebrae was rather common in litis cemetery) Factor 4: Pig bones and hen skeletons (the few hen skeletons of the cemetery were associated with „a" quality pig bones) Factor 5: Ovicaprid legs (in some graves „b" and „c" small ruminant bones occurred together) The criterion extracting these factors was a latent root exceeding 1. Due to the great degree of fragmentation it seems that the animal bones of the cemetery represent food offerings, and thus they also fit into the artificial classification of meat value categories. Ritual decision making as a part of mortuary behavior, however can only be judged after detailed consideration of interrelationships between economic and ideological factors. 95