Kovács Tibor - Stanczik Ilona (szerk.): Bronze Age tell settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain I. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 1; Budapest, 1988)

Sándor BÖKÖNYI: Animal remains from Bronze Age tells in the Berettyó valley

ANIMAL REMAINS FROM THE BRONZE AGE TELLS OF THE BERETTYÓ VALLEY Sándor BÖKÖNYI In the framework of the Bronze Age tell program Dr. M. Máthé of the Déri Museum, Debrecen, carried out three small-scale excavations on three sites of the Berettyó valley in Eastern Hungary—near the town of Berettyóújfalu-, with the aim of clarifying their stratigraphie sequence. All three excavations were successful, for each tell contained one or more Bronze Age levels. Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom yielded a rich layer of the Middle Bronze Age Gyulavarsánd culture, in BakonszegKádárdomb a thick layer of the Gyulavarsánd culture, and a thinner layer of the Early Bronze Age Otomani culture were uncovered, whilst in Gáborján-Csapszékpart a level of the Nyírség group of the Early Bronze Age Zók culture was found. Two of the three tells contained layers of earlier periods as well: levels of the Tiszapolgár culture at Gáborján-Csapszékpart, and of the Tiszapolgár and Herpály culture at Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom. However, the faunal assemblage recovered from the levels of these cultures were, similarly to those recovered from the Otomani levels, very small, and indicated little more than the occurrence of certain species on the sites of these cultures. The Berettyó valley offered a flat, well-watered environment; the settlements were mostly founded on levees or smaller or larger elevations of the floodplain. Since the soil was good in this area, the population had no need to search for new agricultural land for fear of the exhaustion of the soil, but could remain in the same spot for longer periods of time which, in turn, led to the accumulation of high, tell-like settlements. These settlements often lay over earlier Copper Age or Neolithic sites some of which, such as Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom, were fortified.

1 Little can be said about the faunal assemblage of the Otomani culture. All six domestic species of temperate Europe —cattle, sheep, goat, pig,horse andgoat — occurred in it, with a probable dominance of cattle; the predominant wild species were ungulates-aurochs, red deer, roe deer and wild swine, with a dominance of red deer. These species were obvioulsy hunted exclusively for their meat. Other wild species were killed only occasionally, birds were entirely absent, and fish too was rare, even though this could be the result of the smallness of the sample, implying that the occupants of these sites did actually fowl and fish wherever possible. On the other hand, the richer animal bone sample of the Gyulavarsánd culture yielded not only a complete Bronze Age domestic fauna, but also a wild fauna rich Table 1. The occurring wild species Bakonszeg-Kádárdomb Gáborján-Csapszékpart Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom 1. aurochs-Bos primigenus Boj. + + + 2. red deer-Cervus elaphus L. + + + 3. roe deer-Capreolus capreolus L. + + 4. wild swineSus scrofa fer. L. + + + 5. wild catFelis silvestris Schreb. + — _ 6. lynx-Lynx lynx L. + — _ 7. badger- Mêles mêles L. + — _ 8. otter-Lutra lutra L. — — + 9. brown bear-Ursus arctos L. + — — 10. fox-Vulpes vulpes L. — + + 11. wolf-Canis lupus L. — — + 12. beaver-Castor fiber L. + _ + 13. brown hare - Lepus europaeus L. — — + 14. wild birds-Aves — + 15. pond tortoise-Emys orbicularis L. + + total 10 5 11