Marta, Livius et al.: The Late Bronze Age Settlement of Nyíregyháza-Oros „Úr Csere” (Satu Mare, 2010)
X.Elisabeta Berendi: Archaeozoological Description of the Faunal Remnants
Dm=21.5, thus the wither height is 70.53 cm. This size fits exactly the withers height of adult pigs in Central Europe in the Bronze Age12, which was not more than 60 to 85 cm. The length of the astragalus also fits the measurements taken at Otomani13 (39-48 cm), it is smaller than the one measured at Monteoru14 (notice that there was also only one astragalus found), but it is smaller than the withers height average from Szombathely- Kámon15 (77-83 cm). Ovicaprinae (sheep and/or goat) Only 4.58% of the bones come from this group (this is a bit less then 10% of the defined elements), but we should mention that most of the undefined elements that originated from medium size mammals probably belonged to this category. 23 pieces could be determined as Ovis aries, and 17 pieces as Capra hircus, but they all will be referred to as Ovicaprinae in the following, due to the other, not specifically defined elements. The slaughter age could be determined at almost all fragments: 14 juveniles, 14 subadults, and 21 adults. Unfortunately, we must consider the fact that there was a high number of teeth (30 pieces), which means that almost half of the defined Ovicaprinae bones were teeth. This means that we should be careful with conclusions. High presence of teeth can explain also the relatively small amount of artificial bone alterations observed: 11 gnawed bones, 11 cut bones, 5 burnt bones, and 3 boiled ones, which means that almost all post-cranial bones were affected. As for the percentage according to meat quality16, it can be clearly noticed, that half of the findings are teeth and horns. So obviously, these animals were kept mostly because of their secondary usage, but in number, they were not primarily important in animal husbandry. 12 According to Teichert (1993) 13 According to Haimovici (1987) 14 According to Haimovici (1994) 15 According to Vörös (1999) 16 According to Uerpmann (1973) 142
