Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bartosiewicz László – Choyke, A. M.: Numerical classification of cattle astragali from pit 55 at Lovasberény-Mihályvár. p. 37–42.
Fig. 2: Dendrogram showing the three main clusters below the critical value 2 (continuous lines). The calculation is based on standardized values. S = small; L = large; M = medium. Fig. 3: Plot of the canonical variables. 1, 2 and 3 are the mean coordinates for small, medium and large astragali respectively. Marked values indicate the overlaps between different groups. L » large; M = medium; S = small. Conclusions From the results it seems evident that the three groups of astragali may be attributed to individuals of different size. Davis (1981) lists five possible chiefly environmental effects influencing mammalian body size in general. The last of these, domestication must be of decisive importance in this case. 1. One may interpret the three groups as three forms of cattle being exploited at the site. In this case sex and age however should cause overlaps between the groups, unless one presumes that only animals of a certain sex or age ended up in the pit for example because of ritual considerations. 2. Research has shown, that the size of Bronze age domestic cattle was relatively uniform compared to the great variability displayed by the species both during the period of early domestication and in later times as a result of conscious breeding (Bökönyi 1952). This is why it is likely that the individuals were not selected by age and sex (or at least not in different proportions) prior to the deposition of their bones in the pit. The groups "small", "medium" and "large" may well correspond to the bones of calves, cows and bulls, especially in regard to the great variability of the first group, which unambiguously seems to represent a greater span in the growth process. The separation of the other two groups may easily be attributed to sexual dimorphism. The information obtained from the calculations suggests that astragali from cattle of both sexes and various age were deposited in Pit 55 at Lovasberény—Mihályvár. Probably the same holds true in the case of phalanges, while metatarsal bones connecting the phalanges and the tarsals in the limbs are practically missing altogether perhaps because the gristle and fat content of their articular surfaces may reduce the efficiency of possible glue extraction (SCHMID 1972). At the same time many of the bones, including 33 of the 44 astragali, bear signs of heat treatment (cooking or roasting). Thus, it is possible that animal legs were prepared along with other meals in the settlement and the short bones were discarded off site into this pit of peripheral location, while the long bones were retained with the edible meat parts for marrow extraction and tool making. It is also possible that the collageneous parts of joints represented by these bones were cooked for industrial purposes, most probably glue extraction, and the long bones were processed separately. The variability in the way these astragali were subjected to heat and disarticulated suggests a possible craft activity combined with food consumption: a r = 0.52 correlation was found between butchering marks and traces of heat treatment in this part of the sample (Choyke — Bartosiewicz 1980/81). In spite of these arguments one cannot rule out the possibility that the bones were deposited in such an unusual way as the result of ritual activities. This version also includes the possibility that the bones were accumulated over a longer interval. Faunal analysis of this pit injects a cautionary note into the research: any artifactual evidence pointing toward ritual behavior must be weighed carefully against the apparent contradictions mentioned above. L. Bartosiewicz — A. M. Choyke 39
