engleski

Archaeozoological evidence of dietary habits of small castle inhabitants in the medieval Slavonia

The paper presents knowledge about the meat alimentation of the inhabitants of medieval fortifications in the area of the Kingdom of Slavonia (regnum Sclavoniae). Analyzed samples of animal bones originate from the archaeological sites Veliki Zdenci–Crni Lug, Grubišno Polje–Šuma Obrovi 1, Sveta Ana–Gradina and Osijek Vojakovački–Mihalj. All of them belong to so called high-status sites, inhabited by the social elite of the medieval Slavonia. When analysing the bone remains, the stratigraphy, the absolute radiocarbon dating of certain contexts and the typological characteristics of the other finds from the archaeological contexts were taken into consideration for each site. Thus, three horizons of habitation have been recognized. The earliest (13th to 14th century) is present at Veliki Zdenci–Gradina, Osijek Vojakovački–Mihalj and Sveta Ana–Gradina sites, the next horizon (end of the 14th–15th c.) has been recognized at the sites Veliki Zdenci and Mihalj and the youngest horizon (end of the 15th–beginning of the 16th c.) is represented by the Veliki Zdenci and Grubišno Polje–Šuma Obrovi 1 sites. For each archaeological site (per context and horizons) the number of identified specimens’ for each animal species was determined and in later analyses the sites are compared by the results of the number of identified specimens’ percentage (%NISP). Inter-site comparison of dietary habits and use of animals in other purposes beside the meet for food in different periods, namely in specific horizons of individual studied sites on the bone remains of cattle, pig, small ruminants and chicken could be made for only two horizons – the earliest and the latest. In the first horizon Sveta Ana greatly differs from other sites, showing through faunal finds clear characteristics of a site of high- status inhabitants. Mihalj, on the other side, shows more indications of a non-elite site. Similarly Veliki Zdenci in the first horizon does not show faunal indicators of elite site, which is clearly changed in the second horizon when some clear indications of elite consumption can be recognized. In the third horizon the decline of prosperity of life in Zdenci is evident, while at Grubišno Polje the elite consumption habits can be recognized in several aspects. The summarized results of archaeozoological analysis of the studied four castles are also compared to the results of the archaeozoological analyses of 7 archaeologically investigated and published high status sites and, in addition, the results of 5 published non-elite sites, e.g. rural settlements were also taken into consideration in order to gain insight into meat dietary on different sites of the wider medieval Slavonian territory. Comparing the number of identified specimens of wild animals from Slavonian sites the clear differences between rural (1.57% wild NISP) and high status (5.25% wild NISP) settlements type as it was established for Hungarian sites have not been recognized. Slavonian castles fit better to the picture of wider European area where the percentage of game at castles oscillates between 2 to 5% with maximum 11%.

medieval archaeology ; zooarchaeology ; castles, noble strongholds ; settlements ; medieval Slavonia

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