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The Various Voices of Medieval Animal Bones

Alice M. Choyke, Kyra Lyublyanovics, László Bartosiewicz (Budapest)

Introduction

Animals have been woven almost imperceptibly into the complex web of human existence from the very beginning of human history. From the far off times of the Paleolithic past up to the present day, animals have permeated every aspect of our ancestor’s lives and our own. Archaeozoology is the identification, analysis and scientific as well as socio-cultural interpretation of animal remains from archaeological sites. Such zoological finds have been exposed to ancient human activity (animal husbandry, processing etc.). Consequently, archaeological animal bone assemblages are “artifacts” that embody cultural processes. Often the human – animal interaction was purely practical, basically geared toward subsistence. Animals, coming from agricultural production systems were selected for slaughter, their carcasses divided between artisans working in various crafts and the butchers who sold their meat. These assemblages tell archaeozoologists what species were eaten, old the animals were, what they looked like etc. Marks of butchery reflect carcass partitioning both by the butcher and later during food preparation. These steps all involve choices fundamentally dependent on idiosyncratic cultural practices. These tend to be conservative and change only slowly unless radical outside pressure is exerted on food habits. The economically most important domestic animals, sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), cattle (Bos taurus) and pig (Sus domesticus) provided meat and milk for food. Their skins were made into clothing such as tunics and shoes or parts of equipment including straps for harnesses. The production of and trade in these goods formed significant parts of medieval economies. Bones, teeth, antlers and horns were also made into all sorts of utensils and ornaments, widely sold and used throughout every period. Before the advent of mechanization, horse (Equus caballus), donkey (Equus asinus) and mules/hinnies (Equus mulus/hinnus) as well as cattle were used to move people and goods long distances and pull heavy loads in agriculture, construction work and military transport. Draught oxen were widely used during the Middle Ages and much appreciated in heavy-duty work such as tillage and forestry work. Training good ox teams was a lengthy and tedious task, which made them especially valuable (Bartosiewicz et al. 1997). During the 16-17th century Ottoman Turkish occupation of Hungary great numbers of camels (Camelus sp., probably dromedaries), were used in shipping artillery supplies (Bartosiewicz 1996).

Figure 1: Dog breeds in the 14th century Buda Royal Court. The variability in shape and pelage is indicative of selective breeding, difficult to detect in the archaeological record (Zolnay 1971).