Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)
The animal remains from the Avar cemetery at Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya
Felgyő , Ürmös-tanya avar temető ál latcsontmellékletei 407 tained goose remains only, two burials additionally contained a pigeon metatarsal, a hen carpometacarpal and hare metatarsals. Grave 86 yielded one, Grave 108 two, Grave 159 three and Grave 118 four domestic goose metacarpals. Zoological characteristics: Only a part of the goose bones could be measured (Table 5). The dimensions of the bones indicated that they came from individuals of different sexes. Cattle Cattle remains were recovered from 39 burials (46 deposits). A cattle sacrifice was found in a single grave. Cattle food offerings were deposited in 38 burials, while cattle bones were placed as attributes in two graves (Table 2). In addition to the cattle sacrifices, Graves 158 and 160 also contained food offerings and cattle attributes. Funerary sacrifices: The cattle skull in Grave 160 (the upper part of the skull with the horncores) was intended as a sacrifice. The cattle skull came to light from a male burial and was found together with a cattle lumbar vertebra and a sheep fibula. Food offerings: Cattle food offerings were recovered from 38 burials. Grave 47 contained two cattle food offerings, while Graves 43 and 169 contained three each. The cattle food offerings came to light together with an attribute and animal sacrifices. Remains with meat, the traditional form of food offerings, were not found in the Felgyő cemetery. The pair of bones from the lower part of the hind limbs (tibia-astragalus, calcaneus-metatarsus) perhaps symbolised the meaty bones, even though these barely contain any meat. The most frequent cattle food offerings were loin chops and ribs (37 graves, 78.7 per cent). Two graves contained a dorsal vertebra only, sixteen graves a sacral vertebra, while six graves also contained another cattle bone in addition to the sacral vertebra and two graves contained two other cattle offerings. The last or last two vertebrae were most often found. Food offerings comprising the sacral vertebrae were also found in the Avar cemetery at Halimba (VÖRÖS 1999, 52). Seven graves contained articulate dorsal and sacral vertebrae, indicating that the food offering was taken from the area where the back and the sacral vertebra were fused. When meat is carved up from this area, the last dorsal vertebra and the first sacral vertebra are usually found in the burial. A sacral vertebra was found together with a rib in three graves, while back vertebrae and ribs came to light from four burials. Grave 43 contained a pelvic bone, ribs and a sacral vertebra, Grave 169 a sacral vertebra, a dorsal vertebra and a metapodium. Grave 201 yielded ribs only; Grave 169 also contained a metacarpal. About one-half of the cattle food offerings were recovered from male burials (twenty graves), one-quarter from female burials (nine graves) and 20 per cent from child burials (eight graves) (Table 3). Cattle remains were also found in a burial which could not be sexed. Sacral vertebrae were found in twelve male burials, back vertebrae and ribs in seven male burials, and ribs in a single male burial. Five female burials contained sacral vertebrae only, two female burials had a rib and a pelvic bone in addition to the sacral vertebra, while two female burials contained a dorsal vertebra and ribs. The remains of meaty bones from limbs were recovered from male burials. Graves with cattle offerings only accounted for 53 per cent of all graves (twenty burials). Cattle offerings were deposited together with sheep in nine burials (24 per cent), with sheep and hen in four graves (10.5 per cent), with pig and hen in one grave (2.6 per cent) and with pig in two burials (5.3 per cent). Seven graves (18.4 per cent) contained a cattle and a hen offering, while one grave (2.6 per cent) also contained a cattle sacrifice. Attribute: A cattle attribute was found in Grave 109, a child burial, and Grave 158, a male burial. A patella was recovered from the former and a calcaneus from the latter. These graves did not contain any other animal remains. Zoological characteristics: Few of the recovered bones were suitable for the zoological characterisation of cattle (Table 6). It would appear that the cattle raised by the Felgyő community were medium sized. The right transverse process of the sacral vertebra from Grave 136 had broken and had completely healed during the animal's life. Sheep Sheep bones were recovered from 23 graves (27.5 per cent), 31 deposits altogether. With the exception of four graves, the sheep remains were all food offerings. A sheep skull was placed in Grave 235 (sheep sacrifice), while three graves contained amulets made from sheep bones (Table 2). Funerary sacrifices: Grave 235, an adult burial which could not be sexed, contained the skull and mandible of a juvenile sheep. The skull came from a 7-8 months old individual, whose teeth were in the process of erupting. The animal was probably slaughtered in September or October, meaning that the funeral too occurred at this time (Table 9). No other animal remains were found beside the sheep sacrifice. Food offerings: Altogether 25 sheep food offerings were deposited in 19 graves. Most burials contained a single sheep offering only, with the exception of five graves, two of which contained two offerings, while the other three contained three offerings each. Recovered from Graves 98 and 194 were vertebrae and loin chops and ribs, while Graves 157 and 159 contained also a rib in addition to the dorsal and sacral vertebrae. The sheep bones in Grave 157 came from four individuals. Grave 169 yielded a rib, a scapula and a sacral vertebra. The most frequent food offerings were ribs. The number of vertebra and ribs found in the graves differs from burial to burial, ranging between one and four in the case of vertebrae and one and six in the case of ribs. Ribs were found in eleven graves, dorsal and sacral vertebrae in six graves. Grave 165 contained both the sacral vertebrae and the sacrum. Sheep tibia were recovered from two graves; a scapula from Grave 169 and the pelvic bone from Grave 229. Sheep food offerings were predominantly placed in male burials (twelve graves; Table 3), and less often in female and child burials (six and three graves resp.; Table 2). With the exception of Grave 96, female burials contained ribs, while male burials usually yielded vertebrae and limb bones, except for Graves 100 and 201, which contained ribs only. Sheep food offerings were often combined with other animal remains: one burial contained also pig, nine also yielded cattle, six had domestic hen; in seven graves, sheep remains were found together with cattle and hen remains (Table 10). None of the burials contained solely sheep remains. The three graves with only sheep meat also had sacrificial offerings of hen. Amulets: Grave 128 yielded a tooth (M : sin.). Graves 207 and 208 each contained two astragali. One astragalus bore patches of brown pigment. The amulets came to light from two male burials (Graves 128 and 208) and a child burial (Grave 207) (Table 2). Zoological characteristics: The few measurable bones all come from juvenile individuals (Table 7). The withers height estimated from one tibia is 60 cm, corresponding to a medium sized individual. The tibia came from a 2-3 years old individual, not fully grown.
