Gaál Attila (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 20. (Szekszárd, 1998)
László Bartosiewitz: Váralja-Várfő középkori állatcsontleletei
On the basis of astragalus greatest lengths, the withers heights of two individuals were estimated as 59 and 65 cm respectively. 17 Many other measurements also indicate medium size animals. István Vörös 18 attributed the small size of medieval pigs recovered in the Buda Castle to penning. It is not difficult to imagine that in the rural environment of the castle penning would not have been of particular significance. In the wooded areas of Transdanubia, especially when covered with acorn bearing oak and beach forests, pig keeping must have been particularly important during the Middle Ages. 19 Possible crossings with wild pig may also explain the presence of a few large suid bones in this medieval bone assemblage which, otherwise, shows little evidence for frequent hunting. Even today, wild pigs are habitually attracted by crops in the cultivated zones separating settlements and woodland. According to a 13 th century account, at least on one estate, the profit originating from keeping pigs in the forest was 25 times greater than from the sale of wood. 20 In addition to better known codified forms of pig pasturing, written regulations show that cows were also grazed in the forest as early as the 13 th century. 21 Pig is comparable to caprines in terms of individual meat output. Its reproduction kill-off rate (exclusively meat exploitation), however, are even higher. 22 Horse {Equus caballus L. 1758) As is usual with medieval faunal assemblages, especially from densely inhabited castles and urban contexts, horse remains occur but sporadically in the Váralja material. They make up only 0.4% of the NISP values listed in Table 1. This small sub-sample is also dominated by the remains of adult and mature animals (Figure 1) and is therefore different from that of the small domestic ungulates. Although fragments of a humerus and a femur were also identified, „C" category bones were more characteristic of this evidently non-meat purpose species. Terminal bones from foot remains are characteristic finds from this domestic animal. Such remains may originate from beasts of burden skinned following their death. A taboo against eating horse flesh was observed to varying degrees after the onset of Christianity in many European countries. 23 The ideological significance of this issue is clearly illustrated by the record that in Hungary, during the 1046 pagan uprising led by Vata, people „following his sinful persuasion devoted themselves to the devil, ate horse flesh and committed all sorts of terrible sins". 24 Dog (Canis familiáris L.) In spite of the sporadic occurrence of dog gnawing on animal bones recovered from most of the medieval deposits in Váralja, bones of dogs are relatively frequent in this assemblage. Many of the remains originate from juvenile individuals (Figure 1), whose remains came to light from various features. The status of dogs in medieval Váralja is difficult to assess. In the absence of measurable bones and the young age of several individuals it is not possible to determine how these animals were used. While meat exploitation must be ruled out, it is not possible to recognise guarding, herding or hunting dogs among these sporadic remains represented by largely non-articulated bones. A great variety of dog „breeds" were depicted on a late medieval sketch from Buda. 25 Intensive dog gnawing, an indicator of prolonged garbage exposure on the surface, occurs only on eight bones. Since, however, all these bones are robust specimens (pig, humeri, cattle metatarsalia etc.) it may be hypothesized that numerous smaller bones were completely consumed by dogs. Never the less, the relatively small incidence of this phenomenon suggests that food refuse was in all probability rapidly buried in most cases. Domestic hen (Gallus domesticus L. 1758) goose (Anser domesticus L. 1758) l7 TEICHERT1969,340. 18 VÖRÖS 1992, 234. "WENZEL 1887,333. 20 DORNER 1925, 30. 21 TAGÁNYI1896, 16. 22 BARTOSIEWITZ 1986,42. 23 LANGDON 1986, 261. 24 MATOLCSI 1982,252. 25 BARTOSIEWITZ 1995b: Fig. 39. 159
