Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 26. 1989-1992 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1997)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bartosiewicz László: A Székesfehérvár Bestriary: Animal Bones from the Excavations of the medieval City Wall. p. 133–167.

Unfortunately, all too often, most bones of these two small domestic Ruminants can only be described as remains of sheep or goat, that is, identified only at the level of the Caprinae subfamily. Further extrapolations from the proportion established between sheep and goat bones accurately identified to species may be entirely misleading without a quantitative basis and is probably the worst thing that can be done. Quantitative conditions for such an extrapolation include a relatively small proportion of ambiguous identifications stuck at the previously mentioned subfamily level, and simultaneously, a great difference between the number of sheep bones and those of goat. In other words, if a poorly preserved large sample of Caprine remains contain an approximately equal but small number of identifiable sheep and goat bones, extrapolation is hopeless (Bartosiewicz 1984b). This is not even the case in the medieval material of this study: Summarized Caprine remains make up only one fifth of the faunái sample and the dominance of sheep seems to be rather clear at all three locations, but this observation is not supported by appropriate sample sizes. In the Turkish Period material sheep, goat and unidentified Caprine bones make up approximately one third of the finds but only half of these small Ruminant remains could be identified down to the species level. The contribution of goats is apparently greater, especially at JM/1. The percentage of sheep bone fragments in the Turkish Period features, however, may be anywhere between 14 and 29 %.

4 Medieval sheep keeping seems to have been mostly aimed at wool and skin production (Bökönyi 1974; Bartosiewicz 1996). The only complete metapodial found from this period yields an estimated withers height of 71.53 cm which is higher than that of the early medieval sheep in general and seems to be slightly above the average of this characteristic for that period. In fact, this figure corresponds to that of modern Racka (also known as "Zackelschaf) rams of the white variety as measured on 32 individuals (Dunka 1984). Although the unambiguous evidence for this breed is known from late medieval Vác in the form of a twisted horn core (Bartosiewicz 1991; 1994a), such rare find did not occur at any of the sites in Székesfehérvár. Sheep keeping during the Turkish Period is known to have been influenced by the fact that mutton was probably the most preferred meat consumed by the occupying populatioin. Although sheep was eaten by the local inhabitants before the invaders' arrival, sheep had to substitute for pork production to a great extent during the Turkish rule. Sheep keeping was most probably encouraged by the occupiers as opposed to pig farming, which was a food resource not regularly tapped by the Turkish administration and not supported either (Gaál 1966). Under these circumstances it is also possible that the 4 That is, the fifteen percent difference between these figures may just as easily be made up by unrecognized skeletal elements of goats. popularity of mutton increased among the loca inhabitants as well (Siklósi, personal communication). Certainly, the presence of uniform and relatively large horn cores at this site illustrates, that sheep were not only represented in a respectable number, but the quality of the stock exploited by the town's inhabitants must have been fairly good as well (Pl.III). As far as pork is concerned, the increased contribution of cattle and especially goat to the Turkish Period material also indicates the complementary role of Ruminants as meat suppliers during that time. Although the size of the material did not permit the establishment of statistically sig- nificant percentages, two views concerning the role of sheep in relation to other domestic species may be worth discussing briefly here. Ducos (1969) noted a complementarity between pig and cattle raising which he considers ancient because "evidence from the Neolithic sites of Palestine shows a specialization in animal use: cattle and pig on the one hand, and sheep and goat on the other". This patterning, based on archaeozoological bone assemblages, may be more deeply understood in light of modern data on stock size and meat consumption in 27 developing countries (Bartosiewicz-Sáfár 1983). Either sheep or pig appear to independently define the meat exploitation character of those countries (chiefly depending on the influence of the geographical distribution of the Islamic pig prohibition in Africa and Southwest Asia). Cattle, and to some extent goat, on the other hand seem to be associated with each other and play a complementary role in both extreme types of meat production. In the same study it was not possible to identify statistically different tendencies between the intensity of the meat exploitation of the two Caprine species. That is, all Caprine remains in this case come from animals which may be regarded as substitutes for pig bones in the Turkish Period material, while the increase in the number of cattle remains may parallel the same tendency in goat.

5 The correlation between cattle and goat stocks may partly be explained by the different reproduction cycles, that enable complementarity between the lactation periods in dairy exploitation of these animals (Dahl-Hjort 1977,235). Two goat horn cores from the Turkish Period are shown in PI. IV, while butchered sheep skulls from the medieval material suggest the popularity of the sheeps' brain as a delicacy (PI. V). 5 Naturally, geographical variations affecting this comparison should not be overlooked. It is hoped, howerer, that the extensive area studied in the modern analysis as well as the Christian-Islamic in both the archaeological and contemporary material make careful generalizations possible.