Animal skeletal remains of the La Tene period at the Castle Hill in Nitra
2002
Fabis, M. (Slovenska Polnohospodarska Univ., Nitra (Slovak Republic))
In the year 1993 during the reconstruction work within the area of the Little Seminar at the Castle Hill in Nitra, a settlement feature dated to the late La Tene period (Iron Age) - late first millennium B.C. was unearthed. In addition to various artefacts also animal remains were collected. The remains were exposed to osteological analysis carried out macroscopically. The analysis focused on species and skeletal element structure, taphonomical, and pathological alterations. Aim of our study was to illuminate the ancient human-animal interactions, exploitation of the animals, and morphological characteristics of the Iron Age fauna exploited in the area of recent Slovakia. The remains consisted mostly of skeletal elements of domestic animals with overwhelming amount of cattle (57%) dominating over small ruminants - sheep and goats (17%), then pig (17.9%), and other domestic animals like horse, dog and chicken. Wild species represented a few skeleton remains of red deer and aurochs. Many of the bones showed traces of intentional activities connected with disarticulation and breaking of the bone integrity. Some of the bones were pathologically altered and one showed a developmental anomaly. The skeletal elements structure indicates that the domestic animals (namely the cattle) were not only consumed but also killed on the site of their finds. Taking of measurements allowed us to count out the withers height of some individuals - their growth was compared with data from several contemporary sites of central Europe. Some of the identified pathological alterations were explained as the results of exploitation of the animals by humans - a clear proof of the human's impact onto the health of the exploited animals
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