Animal management in the fortified palace Felix Romuliana – Gamzigrad (Serbia) throughout the Late Antique and the Early Byzantine periods

Abstract

This paper represents the first results of zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains from the fortified palace Felix Romuliana – Gamzigrad in eastern Serbia. The faunal material derives from the Late Antique (the second half of the 4th and the 5th centuries) and the Early Byzantine (the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 7th century) contexts investigated in the tower 15 of the later fortification which was built during the reign of Emperor Galerius (293–311) in the first decade of the 4th century CE. According to the results, some similarities and differences were noted between the periods in question. Namely, during both periods the most important animal was pig and the patterns of exploitation were similar. Cattle exploitation was oriented towards secondary products in both phases of the settlement, however, there is a slight decrease in cattle ratio and its size during the Early Byzantine period which could suggest the decline in the importance of this species though time. Regarding caprines, in the Late Antique period the local community mainly exploited secondary products, while in the Early Byzantine period the focus shifted to meat exploitation. Furthermore, the increase in numbers of indicated species was observed during the Early Byzantine period. The low amount of wild animal and fish remains suggests that hunting and fishing were periodically practised by the local population.