Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 11. - A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatói 5. találkozójának előadásai (1995)

Bartosiewicz László: Állatcsontok Balatonkiliti VII-VIII.századi avar temetőjéből

178 BARTOSIEWICZ LASZLO KIESEWALTER, L. (1888). Skelettmessungen am Pferde. Leipzig: Inaugural Dissertation. KÖLTŐ L. (1994). VII-VIII. századi avar temető Balatonkiliti határában. Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei X: 37-71. KRETZOI M.-GÁBORI-CSÁNK V. (1968). Zoologie archéologique. In Gábori-Csánk V. ed.: La station du paléolithique moyen d'Érd - Hongrie. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó: 223-244. MATOLCSI, J. (1969). Avar kori háziállatok maradványai Gyenesdiáson (Avar period domestic animal remains from Gyenesdiás). Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 19671968: 85-124. MATOLCSI, J. (1975). A háziállatok eredete (The origin of domestic animals). Budapest: Mezőgazdasági Kiadó. Rescue excavations brought to light 30-40 % of an Avar Period cemetery in Western Hungary. The burials uncovered represent approximately one century spanning between the last third of the 7th to the last third of the 8th century. Thirty-four of the 44 graves excavated contained animal remains. Due to intensive population movements and concommittant low degree of sedentism, patterns of meat consumption (and those of animal keeping in a broad sense) during the Migration Period and Early Middle Ages in Hungary are predominantly known from mortuary rites. The smaller degree of taphonomic loss and the frequent presence of articulated bones from the same individual make such zoological finds especially interesting. At the same time, however, one must be keenly aware of the fact that grave offerings present a potentially distorted view of mundane meat consumption and animal husbandry practices due to the host of ideological considerations inherent to mortuary behavior. Animal remains identified in this cemetery may be classified in three major categories. Skulls, mandibles and dry limb bones (auto- and metapodia) of sheep originate, with great probability, from skinned animals whose hides were placed in the graves. With the exception of one woman and two children of unknown gender, such bones occurred in the burials of males. The next group of zoological finds may be described as food offerings. It consisted of odd bones from MATOLCSI, J. (1982). Állattartás őseink korában (Animal keeping in the time of our ancestors). Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó. SZŐKE В. M. (1979). Zur Problematik des Bestattungsritus mit verstümmelten Rinderschädel des Typs von Sopronkőhida. Acta Arch. Hung. 31: 51-103. TEICHERT, M. (1975). Osteologische Untersuchungen zur Berechnung der Widerristhöhe bei Schafen. In A. T. Clason ed.: Archaeozoological studies. Amsterdam - New York: North Holland and American Elsevier: 51-69. UERPMANN, H.-P. (1973). Animal bone finds and economic archaeology. World Archaeology 4/3: 308-309. VARRO, T. M. (1971). A mezőgazdaságról. Rerum rusticarum libri très. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. sheep, cattle, pig and, in a single case, fish. In the Carpathian Basin, pig keeping was probably gradually adopted by the Avar people who represented an Asiatic pastoral tradition originating from steppe areas. It is therefore remarkable that pork was included among the grave goods of later burials in this cemetery. The third category of animal remains at Balatonkiliti is made up by poultry, of which skeletons and clustered long bones of domestic hens and roosters occurred most commonly. Eggshell fragments of the same species were found predominantly in the graves of women and children. In two cases, bones of geese were recovered. One of these animals was halved and the left side was placed in the grave. The other goose was represented only by the remains of its wings. Both burials were of men of mature age. Previous research indicated that the presence of sheep skulls (associated with dry limb bones and concommittant hide use in this paper) not only show a geographical pattern different from graves that contained cattle skulls, but their inventories of archaeological artifacts are different as well. In this regard the position of the Balatonkiliti cemetery may be considered peripheral in relation to the concentration of Avar Period burials (characterized by cattle skulls) in northwestern Hungary, Austria and Slovakia. This type of sheep remains also seems to have been overwhelmingly associated with males at the Avar cemetery of Balatonkiliti. ANIMAL BONES FROM THE 7TH-8TH CENTURY CEMETERY AT BALATONKILITI (HUNGARY) Resume