Budapest Régiségei 36. (2002) – In memoriam Rózsa Kalicz-Schreiber (1929-2001)

Vörös István: Sacrificial cattle remains from the early bronze age settlement at Soroksár = Korabronzkori szarvasmarha áldozatok maradványai Soroksáron 247-255

SACRIFICIAL CATTLE REMAINS FROM THE EARLY BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT SOROKSÁR The animal bone remains were in the western half of the pit, in the fill-up sediments over a human skeleton in contracted position. Pit No. 4b. (diameter: 120 x 150 cm, depth:260 cm) cattle: adultus cow, 5 pieces of bone head: fragment of right side mandible; trunk: fr. of cervical vertebra; limbs: left side fore leg, distal parts (s. mc-ph. I.-II.) Other animals left side pelvis fragment of horse (diam. of acet. 63 mm) 2. SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS Cattle The anatomical distribution of the cattle remains excavated in the five pits at Soroksár-Botanical Garden shows a uniform patters (Table 2.) head-part: in 13 instances, skull and/or mandible + others only head-part and pieces of vertebrae (2/5., 3/1.) trunk: in 3 instances, connected parts of the vertebral column (2/1., 5., 6.) or pieces of vertebrae (3., 4a-b.) limbs: fore and hind legs + head-part in 7 instances (1, 2/1., 2/6, 3/2-3, 4a/2-3). only fore leg in two cases (2/4., 7.), fore leg + head parts in 3 instances (2/2., 3., 4b), hind leg + head part in one case (4a/l). The cattle was butchered on 'orja", i.e., the vertebral column was cut together with the skull from the body of the animals. This was either performed by immediately cutting that from the dorsal vertebrae or splitting the row of ribs with the chest along the two sides of the carcass turned to its back, in a distance of 10-15 cm from the vertebrae. The skulls were typically split and the pair of mandibles cut off from the head. The trunk was detached of the fore limbs and the pelvis was detached of the hind limbs. Both the connected and the separate leg bones show that the meat was not cut off from them. The cutmarks found on the individual bones were made during the butchering of the animals. In course of the sacrificial process, similar to the examples known from the Late Copper Age, the animals were butchered, the offal detached than the carcass cut in pieces. The meat was not detached from the limbs which were placed into the pit, probably the persons who took part in the rite did not taste the meat. Complete animal was not placed into the pit with the exception of a dog. The head, or part of it, as an attribute for the animal was placed into the Soroksár pits with the exception of two instances. Among the sacrificed cattle we find both sexes as well as castrated work-animals. Of the 15 cattle individuals we find: 4 cows (2/3., 7., 4a/l, 4b) 3 bulls (1, 2/1, 4.) 7 oxen (2/2., 6., 3/1-3, 4a/2-3) 1 calf ? (2/5.) The high number of oxen in the sample cannot be surprising as their power was badly needed as draught both in transport and agriculture. Looking at their distribution by age, we find an interesting phenomenon. From the animals reaching their age of propagation, i.e., more than 3 years, 1 bull, 3 cows and 6 oxen were butchered. Among the calves, there were remains of 2 male, 1 female and one castrate individuals as well as a young calf of 5-6 months. The calculated height of the cattle

9 is given in Table 3 (withers height) and Table 4 (bone dimensions). The Soroksár Early Bronze Age cattle were of large dimensions: the average withers height values were: cow 2 individuals 4 bones: 112,8 cm bull 1 individual 4 bones: 13X2 cm bull calf 1 individuals 1 bone: 128,7 cm approx. 2 years old bull calf 1 individuals 2 bones: 110,1 cm approx. 1-1,5 years old ox 3 individuals 5 bones: 123,7 cm Sheep Among the 5 individuals, there was 1 juvenile and 4 adultus animals. The pits yielded only the head and the fleshy limb parts of the sheep. Dog The sacrificial role of the dog with broken skull is highly probable. The role of pig and horse remains in the sacrificial ceremony is not clear. As a conclusion we can say that the individual sacrificial pits comprised the following animals: Pitl: bull calf Pit 2: 7 cattle individuals - calf, bull calf, 2 cows and 2 oxen 2 sheep Pit 3: 3 cattle - all of them oxen 1 sheep, 1 dog Pit 4 a: 3 cattle - 1 female calf, 2 oxen 2 sheep Pit 4b: cow. In course of the excavation a thick burnt ashy layer was observed on the bottom of pits Nos. 2. and 3., and the animal remains were above them. In pit 2., a black ashy layer was observed above the animal bones as well.

10 The surface of certain cattle bones was burnt brownish-black. The stratigraphical position of the animal remains in pit No. 2. allows the reconstruction of the following order in the process: first, the parts of 2., 3., 4. (ox9 after MATOLCSI 1970. K> SCHREIBER 1984.131. 249