Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo Linné, 1758) remains from Hungary

Abstract

Turkey is the last important domestic animal to have been introduced to Europe. It reached the Carpathian Basin at a historically critical time when this area was divided between the Catholic Hungarian Kingdom allied with Austria, the Ottoman Turkish Empire and Protestant Transylvania, a Turkish protectorate. This politically complex situation was also reflected in trade connections. Potential import routes therefore are unclear. Introduction from western/central European countries is consonant with the spread of turkeys in the European continent, but contacts between the Ottoman Turkish and Spanish trade networks may also be reckoned with. Two of the five sites that yielded turkey bones in Hungary fell outside Ottoman Turkish occupation. One originates from an urban context that only temporarily fell under Turkish rule. All turkey remains found at these settlements can be associated with elite consumption. Their anatomical distribution is dominated by meat-rich skeletal elements. This paper is also a review of literary and linguistic evidence regarding the occurrence of turkeys in the territory of present-day Hungary.