Archeozoological data of the moat system of Sultan Suleiman’s türbe

Abstract

At the end of the 16th century, a tomb (türbe) and a small Ottoman town were built at the site of the death of the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Suleiman I in Szigetvár – Turbék vineyard hill. A moat system bordered the memorial place from the northern direction. This moat was eventually filled in and disappeared by the end of the 17th century when land-use management changed, and the site was turned into an agricultural zone. The memorial place was found in 2014, while the moat surrounding the türbe next year in 2015, when archaeological excavations and geoarchaeological investigations started. Among others, animal remains turned up from the moat filling around the türbe. These archaeozoological finds derive from both hand-picking and wet sieving of samples collected during the excavation of the moat system. Due to this latter not only animal bones but also eggshell fragments were available for research. Bone material of a typical Turkish period site could have come from the Christian population of Hungary or non-Muslim Balkan elements. The particularity of the archaeozoological assemblage analysed in this study is that it can be considered kitchen waste left behind by the Halvetic dervishes living in the pilgrim town and the soldiers guarding the memorial place. These people must have been devout Muslims and abstained from eating pork. The study aims to investigate whether or not the animal bone remains support this hypothesis. In addition, it was important to reveal if our archaeozoological data differ from the bone material of other Ottoman period sites studied so far. Research and analysis of eggshells are not yet widespread in Hungary. Most of our knowledge is based on the analysis of eggshells from the Avar period, so it is important to study eggs from another period, too. Our research indicates that eggs were not only consumed but also used for breeding hens and hatching chicks in Szigetvár – Turbék vineyard hill.