Animal bones and skeletons from the early medieval settlement in Brno-Medlánky

Abstract

The subject of the presented article is the processing of archaeozoological finds from the Early Middle Age settlement in Brno-Medlánky. This relatively small set consists of two different groups of osteological material. The first represents fragments of bones and teeth coming from the so-called kitchen waste. This set was processed by standard methods consisting in determining the anatomical affiliation, species, age, or sex, and the evidence of traces of manipulation (cutting, chopping, biting). The second group of finds representing several complete skeletons of animals is quite significant, as some of the animals were not consumed. Within the three features, 3 canine (2× a dog, 1× a wolf?), a horse and a pig skeleton in the secondary position were captured. Even in these cases, the basic characteristics of the animals were recorded, including age, sex, height, and post-mortem manipulation. The presence of preserved animal bodies from the settlement in Medlánky was compared with other documented finds of skeletons of animals from this period.