Domestic Mammals in the Diet of Medieval Communities in South-Eastern Romania

Abstract

The paper was realized on the study of seven archaeo-zoological samples taken from sites from South-Eastern Romania: Oltina (X-XIth centuries), Piatra Frecaţei (XI-XII th centuries), Dumbraveni (IX-X th centuries), Hârsova (XI-XIII th centuries), Isaccea (XI-XIII th centuries), Capidava (X-XI th centuries), Nufaru (X-XIII th centuries). Animal husbandry constituted an important occupation during the Middle Ages in South-Eastern Romania; more than 90% represent the remains of domestic mammals in the studied assemblages, excepting the samples at Piatra Frecaţei (56.7%) and Nufaru (85.4%) for which the percentage is smaller. The identified domestic mammals are: Bos taurus, Ovis aries, Capra hircus, Sus scrofa domesticus, Equus caballus, Equus asinus, Canis familiaris, Felis domesticus and Camelus sp.; the last four species were not important in food economy. In all settlements under study, the predominant species are cattle, sheep/goat and pigs, both by the number of identified remains and by minimal number of estimated individuals. The percentage of these species varies from one settlement to other, but cattle are dominant in most of them (the percentage range between 32.7% at Piatra Frecaţei and 58.6% at Nufaru). At Dumbraveni sheep/goat exceed the cattle and represent 55.2% from the total number of identified mammal’s remains. Cattle are followed by sheep/goat in the samples at: Capidava (23.8%), Isaccea (24.5%) and Nufaru; at Oltina (28.5%) and Hârsova (27.5%) on the second place (after the cattle) are pigs; at Piatra Frecaţei sheep/goat and pigs have very close percentages (11.6%, respectively 10.9%).