Póczy Klára: Forschungen in Aquincum 1969- 2002 (Aquincum Nostrum 2. Budapest, 2003)
6. Die Wirtschaft Aquincums im Spiegel der neuen Funde - 6.3. Animals and Roman lifeways in Aquincum (Alice M. Choyke)
site. 62 (Fig. 3) This site was discovered during ground leveling work by bulldozers lying about 1/2 km from the Aquincum Civil Town. It belongs to the category of small industrial villa-farms from the AD 3 rd and 4 th centuries. These more industrial type villas produced goods with slave labor such as metal objects, bricks and ceramics for the markets of Aquincum. In this case, a metal workshop or smithy was discovered adjacent to the main building. The sparse animal bones come from outside the walls of this building. Considering that this villa complex was occupied for at least 150 years there are remarkably few bones from this part of the site. The speed and intensity of deposition was very low 63 . Most interesting as far as the question of animal keeping is concerned is the fact that the majority of the bones from food refuse were from parts of carcass low in meat quality. The bones of cattle show the unmistakable chopping marks characteristic of carcasses prepared in the butcher shops of the town. As far as it is possible to tell the cattle bones were mostly from small local animals. While sheep, goat and pig may have been kept at the farm in small numbers it is clear that someone else other than the people working the smithy were getting the higher quality meat cuts. Common people in any case were probably more dependent on plant foods such as grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. Suprisingly, only a single dog bone was found in the refuse bone of the villa. At the same time, there is other bone material from the stone building located near a Roman cross-road, on the modern Kolossy square, 1/2 km south of the Military to the fact that while Calkin and Matolcsi used series of unimproved cows, Boessneck worked with the mixed group of reference animals that also included modern animals whose distal extremity segments are relatively shorter even in cows. 62 The material from this site has been analyzed but not published by the author. All the information in the following section come from these notes. 63 This is expressed by the restricted area where bones were found and their weahered surfaces showing they were not bur ied immediately as was typical within the town of Aquincm. town amphitheater, where a good number of dog bones was recovered. These were Airdale terriersize animals who must have been used as guard dogs. Dog bones are encountered from time to town at sites in the Civil Town. Most of these are small-medium size dogs with thin legs. Since there is no evidence for dog's gnawing bones in the faunal assemblages from the towns, it is clear that dogs did not run free in Aquincum's streets. There is one bone from a large dog, German shepherd size, and a few from lap dog size animals. Only one cat bone, an extremity bone, has been recovered from all the Aquincum faunal assemblages. However, as can be seen on the comparative graph (Fig. 3) there were large numbers of 'horse' bones present in the Kaszásdűlő-Csikós street villa. While none of the bone was from ass it is not possible to say with absolute certainty whether the elements present come from horse or mule. 64 These animals were certainly used to carry or haul goods around and to and from the villa. They were not eaten and the fact that they died at the villa is shown by the presence of bones from all parts of the skeleton. During the course of the analysis of animal bones from a small Avar settlement 65 faunal material from a small 2 nd-3 rd century bath building from settlement north of the Military Town were also identified. Material from the nearby 1 st century timber fort has not been selected and awaits identification and analysis. Interestingly, the proportion of domestic animals is remarkably similar to what was found at the Kaszásdűlő-Csikós utca villa with the meat coming from the centralized butcher shops of the town and relatively more equids, perhaps mules. Finally, a few general words should be said about bird keeping and fish exploitation around and in Aquincum. Bird bone seems to have to 64 WHITE op. cit. 295. Larger measurments must surely have come from horses but the bones in the smaller range may have come from mules produced by crossings between mares and jack-donkeys. Crossings between jennies and stallions result in smaller hinnies. 65 Daróczy-Szabó L., Pásztorhagyományok a Filátorigáti településen. Régészeti szakdolgozat, Eötvös Loránd Egyetem, Budapest (2002), personal communication.
