Bird remains from ecclesiastical sites in medieval Hungary

Abstract

This comprehensive paper, based on already published avian material, provides an overview of the exploitation of birds at ecclesiastical settlements in medieval Hungary, with an outlook on other European religious establishments. Owing also to the differences in excavation methods, sample size, and measurements used during the identification of bird remains, the seven discussed ecclesiastical sites in the Carpathian Basin, which was part of the Hungarian Kingdom during the Middle Ages, showed considerable variability from this point of view. It is certain that poultry constituted the lion's share of the bird meat consumed, even in the wealthiest religious houses, such as bishopric centers. The presence of sexed specimens in some of these bone collections made it possible to distinguish between a small and a large phenotype of domestic chicken based on biometric data. However, in cases when finds were not only collected by hand but the food refuse deposit was also screened, one finds that these assemblages are both quantitatively and qualitatively more varied in terms of the presence and frequency of certain taxa including small game, suggesting the value and special role of (wild) fowl at ecclesiastical establishments. The avian remains that suggest the use of trained birds, as well as the evidence for the use and curation of crossbows, contribute to our knowledge about the hunting and fowling customs at certain religious houses.

Songs of the past ‐ papers of the 10th ICAZ Bird Working Group Meeting

“…The often restrictive and self‐reliant diet of religious sites can be reflected in the bird bone assemblage by low species diversity and relatively high percentage of domestic species, as shown by Lloveras et al (2023) for the 14th–19th century assemblage of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes Barcelona, Spain. However, Gál (2023) points out in her overview of avian assemblages from ecclesiastical sites in Hungary, which show a rather large variety in species, that differences in recovery methods and analysis play an important role in the abundance and diversity of species recovered from a site. The relative diversity and abundance of birds can also be interpreted as indicative of social status, as demonstrated by the presence of hawks and falcons for hunting, an activity for the elite, in Vilnius Lower Castle, Lithuania (Ehrlich et al, 2023), and within the Volga River Basin (Shaymuratova et al, 2023), and the presence of an exotic peacock, likely an ornamental species, in the medieval site of Carrer de Sotstinent Navarro in Barcelona, Spain (Fernández et al, 2023).…”