Szczatki zwierzece z osady z poznego okresou wplywow rzymskich w Swilczy kolo Rzeszowa [Restes animaux d'un gisement romain tardif à Swilcza prés de Rzeszow, pologne méridionale. Animal remains from a late settlement at Swilcza near Rzeszow, southeastern Poland].

Résumé

The animal material studied comes from site 3 at Swilcza near Rzeszow where a settlement from phase D of the Roman period was discovered. The material is largely broken up. Most of the bones show traces of chopping and cutting. No scorched remains were observed. This indicates that animal carcasses were partitioned int o small pieces and then boiled or stewed. The state of preservation of the shafts in long bones and of the braincases in skulls suggests that they were shattered in order to get to marrow and brain, respectively. Absolute and percentage frequency distributions of the identified animal remains according to species and age class are given in Table 1. The proportions of species indicate that cattle were of prime importance in the meat menu of the inhabitants of the settlement. Horses and pigs were often eaten, too. The diet was supplemented by meat of sheep, goats, poultry, and game. Age composition of the material (Table 1) suggests that ruminants were bred mainly for milk and its products, young specimens were seldom killed. Pigs and horses were subject to a long drawn-out rearting, they were generally killed at old age. In the case of horse a long duration of raising can be explained by the use of this animal in conveying.? As regards pigs, they might have been bred for reproduction purposes. The Swilcza people ate also young specimens of pigs and horses which indicates that breeding of these animals (especially pigs) for meat played also an important part. Table 2 shows an anatomical distribution of the animal remains according to species. Measurements of the bones and teeth under study are presented in Tables 3-8.