Bogucki P., Crabtree P. Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.-A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. Volume 2
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
GENDER IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
■
Gender is an underlying structure of everyday life.
Anthropological and archaeological studies of gen-
der emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of
issues raised by the feminist movement. Sociocul-
tural anthropologists came to realize that women
had been either subsumed in the study of “man” or
simply ignored altogether. Thus, these new studies
emphasized the presence of women in current and
past cultures in order to correct for androcentric bi-
ases and the previous neglect of women. In the
1980s, with the understanding that women could
not be the exclusive focus of research, the field of in-
quiry turned to gendered studies, dealing not only
with women’s roles and women’s issues but also
with the interaction of women and men in society.
At the same time, an increasing trend toward alter-
native issues, such as queer studies, performance
studies, and embodiment (particularly its focus on
the corporeal aspects of the body), brought about
more diverse viewpoints in the fields of archaeology
and anthropology.
Archaeological research was somewhat slower
than research in anthropology to get on the band-
wagon, and early medieval research was slower still,
although historical research on women and gender
flourished for the later medieval periods, which had
plentiful documentary evidence. The seminal publi-
cation of Margaret Conkey and Janet Spector’s
1984 work on gender and archaeology was followed
by a number of studies focused on trying to find
women in the archaeological record, often through
differentiation of labor. Spurred by the develop-
ment of new theoretical perspectives within the
framework of post-processual archaeology, the
1990s saw an increased focus on gender rather than
women, but a truly unbiased outlook has been diffi-
cult to come by. Masculinist as well as feminist per-
spectives are needed to produce a holistic interpre-
tation of past lives because women cannot be
investigated to the exclusion of men. There are also
many archaeologists who believe that gender is not
something that must be dealt with in a research de-
sign. This attitude seems a bit odd, given that in
Western society, and indeed any known society, dif-
ferentiation between sexes and genders are critical
components of social, political, and economic activ-
ity and of culture and knowledge.
Although it is agreed that gender is culturally
constructed and sex is biologically determined,
some scholars consider that the concept of a biolog-
ical distinction between male and female also has a
cultural component that guides the outward expres-
sion of biological sex. For the purposes of this dis-
cussion, however, sex will refer to the biological as-
pects of the body, whereas gender will refer to the
expression of the individual culturally. Biological
sex is determined by two chromosomes, X and Y.
Normally, a female has two X chromosomes and a
male has an X and a Y chromosome. In rare in-
stances, biological sex may not fall within a standard
XX or XY chromosomal pattern, or the phenotypic
(outward) appearance may not match the genetic
designation. There may be a chromosomal designa-
tion, such as XXX or XXY, or a situation where an
XX fetus is exposed to male hormones in the womb,
which can result in the individual having male geni-
ANCIENT EUROPE
361
talia. In such a case, the biological sex of an individ-
ual does not fit within the norm and may not corre-
spond with the expected gender.
In addition, work in anthropology has demon-
strated that most gender systems are not dualistic;
that is, there may be a category of individuals in a
society who take on a cultural role that differs from
the expected role. So while the typical masculine
and feminine genders are in the majority, there may
be instances where those who do not fit within the
expected social identity create other genders, or
other identities are created for them. Although it
may be difficult to accept that there is, and has been
in the past, a multiplicity of genders, it seems likely
that gender identities lie on a spectrum of existence
rather than existing as discrete categories. Given
that biological sex does not always fall into distinct
and identifiable categories, it is logical to assume
that genders would be just as variable, if not more
so.
SOCIAL IDENTITY IN
BURIAL CONTEXTS
Gender cannot be analyzed to the exclusion of
other aspects of identity or its role in determining
societal structures. Gender is inextricably linked
with age, status, and power. The complexity of a so-
ciety may also affect the way in which gender is ex-
pressed. The more complex and hierarchical a soci-
ety is, the more positions within the society are
more rigidly defined, and so men’s and women’s
roles may be highly circumscribed.
Status.
Understanding the gender structure of past
societies seems to be easiest to analyze in a burial
context. Burials contain not only bodies, which can
give information about health, but often material
culture in the form of grave goods. In addition, the
landscape of a cemetery (such as where burials are
in relation to others and the location of a cemetery
within the local topography) may give important
clues to a community’s view of social identity. It is
possible that the spatial relationships of burials to
other burials and to the landscape reinforces social
hierarchies and social differences within a communi-
ty. Post-processual and social theory approaches
have led to the realization that the social identity of
an individual (including gender, status, and power)
is not directly reflected through the burial because
the individual’s representation in death is formed
through others in the society who perform the prep-
aration for burial and administer the burial. Howev-
er, the social structure of a society may be echoed
in some form through the representation of its
members in death, and so it provides us with many
clues that can help to reconstruct it.
Gender in early medieval society has only since
the 1990s been approached using archaeological
methods and almost exclusively in a burial context.
Most information specifically regarding the role and
position of women during this period has come
through textual information, such as laws, although
these often have more to do with women possessing
a certain amount of wealth or status. Documentary
evidence, such as wills, reveals that medieval women
could hold and distribute property, but it is not
known if this was common through all social classes.
The laws of Aethelbert of Kent, from the seventh
century, indicate that women had a number of
rights. According to these laws, prospective hus-
bands had to pay a dowry (morgengifu), but it went
to the bride herself, not her family. This money or
property was then hers to do with as she wished.
The seventh-century laws of Wihtred of Kent said
that a woman was not financially responsible for her
husband’s crimes if she had no knowledge of them.
However, if she participated in any crimes herself,
she would have to give up her money and property.
Sixth-century Frankish laws only sometimes men-
tion women; they do so in reference to marriage and
to criminal activities by women and against women.
Where documentary evidence is scarce or non-
existent, trying to determine such rights through ar-
chaeological means can be difficult. The analysis of
grave contents shows that the things buried with
men and women varied between and among them.
Women were often buried with as much wealth as
men were, but whether or not the items in a
woman’s grave were hers during her lifetime or
were bestowed upon her in death cannot be known.
The same can be held true for men, however.
Other issues with the archaeological analysis of
burials stem from assessing the sex and gender of
the buried individuals. Traditional thinking, partic-
ularly in Continental and British archaeology, has
held that weapons found in a grave indicate a male,
and jewelry indicates a female. When osteological
analysis of a skeleton has disagreed with the material
culture found in the grave, the osteological sexing
7: EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
362
ANCIENT EUROPE
has generally been held to have been wrong. How-
ever, there is increasing evidence for occasional ab-
errations from the normal patterns of mortuary
goods. Nevertheless, if a female skeleton has an ac-
companying weapon, it does not necessarily indi-
cate that the woman actually fought with it. Indeed,
Heinrich Härke believes that, even in male graves,
the presence of weapons is more likely an indicator
of status, power, ethnicity, or all of these. A woman
might have been buried with a weapon (most likely
a spear) as a mark of her own status in the communi-
ty, or perhaps the weapon indicates her associated
status as the wife or mother of a local chief.
Age.
Age, too, might factor heavily in the gender
specificity of certain items. Age is closely linked with
gender identity. In some cultures, gender has a cer-
tain amount of fluidity through the life cycle. There
is some evidence for the elderly no longer having
such a rigid gender dichotomy in terms of mortuary
material culture. Guy Halsall’s study of sixth-
century Merovingian cemeteries showed that older
people tended to have non-gender-specific artifacts,
as did children for the most part. A similar practice
may be found at early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries,
where older male skeletons appear to be buried
with very specific female-type artifacts (annular
brooches) at certain cemeteries.
Few archaeological assessments of gender in-
clude childhood as a focus of interest, mainly be-
cause it is difficult to sex juvenile skeletons and hard
to find gendered material culture associated with
children. DNA analysis has been used to sex chil-
dren in an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, but no gen-
dered patterning in their grave goods was seen.
There appear to be no items that are exclusive to
children’s graves in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. In ad-
dition, it is often difficult to delineate the period of
childhood within a culture, particularly if no evi-
dence of a rite of passage to adulthood can be ascer-
tained. In a burial context, children are often identi-
fied as male or female if their grave goods fall within
the standard typology of weapons or jewelry. Most
often, however, children are buried with very little,
although there are numerous examples of very lav-
ish children’s graves in Anglo-Saxon England.
Knives, which are one of the most common items
in both adult’s and children’s graves, do not follow
any gendered pattern.
OTHER SOURCES OF EVIDENCE
Osteological analysis, although sometimes unreli-
able in sexing poorly preserved skeletons, can give
other indicators, such as general health, disease, or
trauma suffered during an individual’s lifetime. In
some cultures these may differ among men and
women. Wear indicators on bones have been used
to identify possible occupations. Dental anomalies
(enamel hypoplasia) caused by poor nutrition can
demonstrate differences in access to food. Research
in pre-Inca and Inca period Peru using stable car-
bon and nitrogen isotope analysis of male and fe-
male skeletons has shown that women and men had
similar and then differential access to foods in those
periods. Lead and oxygen isotope analysis is being
used to try to differentiate the geographical origins
of Early Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain and possibly
determine whether or not males and females had
different patterns of emigration.
When skeletons are poorly preserved, making
osteological sexing difficult, DNA analysis can be
used to determine biological sex. This technique has
been used to look at issues of gender within the so-
cial structure of an Early Anglo-Saxon society at
West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, where a fifth- to
seventh-century settlement and cemetery were ex-
cavated by Dominic Powlesland and Christine
Haughton. DNA analysis was done to learn the bio-
logical sex of forty-two individuals, and the results
were then compared with the gender suggested by
the grave goods of each individual. In addition, age,
status, and particulars of the burial, such as the posi-
tion of the body in the grave, were observed in
order to produce a representation of the social iden-
tity of that person. The majority of skeletons that
were determined to be biologically female were bur-
ied with jewelry, and the majority of biological
males had weapons or no gender-specific goods. Be-
cause females tended to be buried with more types
of gender-specific items, such as brooches and
beads, it was perhaps easier to “see” them, but aside
from weapons, which are not common, there were
few other male-type goods. However, there were
exceptions to the normal pattern. Of the twenty-
four individuals buried with at least a spear, three
were identified as female through DNA analysis.
Another individual, of about eighteen, was found
with amulets and jewelry and could not be osteo-
logically sexed. DNA analysis identified him as male,
although the grave goods indicate a female; it is pos-
GENDER IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
ANCIENT EUROPE
363
sible that he was a spiritual figure within the com-
munity. With limited knowledge of the way reli-
gious beliefs played out in society before
Christianity set in, archaeologists can only surmise
the nature of shamanlike roles within communities.
Burials found with amulets and other potentially
symbolic goods may have signaled that the person
buried there played a role as a healer or priest. Tania
Dickinson labeled a woman found in one such early
Saxon burial as a “cunning woman,” a practicer of
magic, healing, and divination.
It has been difficult to obtain evidence of gen-
der structures from the archaeological analysis of
settlements. Some cultures tend to have distinct
segregation of work areas by men and women, and
some do not. Some of the easiest gendered artifacts
to see from the early medieval period are items hav-
ing to do with textile production, such as needles
and spindle whorls, which are doughnut-shaped ob-
jects used as weights when weaving. These are
found in graves but are also found in domestic areas.
In early medieval Ireland, the presence of these
items in household areas indicates that a woman’s
area of work was directly involved with the home
and that this may have been the place where women
developed their own social networks. Evidence for
gendering food production or food preparation is
scarce, both textually and archaeologically. Later
Anglo-Saxon texts indicate that lower-status
women would have participated in such tasks. In
rural farming villages, women would certainly have
had to perform these duties, and whetstones are
sometimes found in female graves.
Gender is critical to understanding the social
structures of past societies. The place of women rel-
ative to men in early medieval society has been
gleaned mainly from textual sources. These sources
have many limitations, but these may now be reme-
died through archaeological and molecular ap-
proaches of study. A critical archaeological analysis
of the ways in which gender structured early medi-
eval societies needs to be taken up by researchers.
Although there cannot be conclusions that cut
across all cultures, at least in some societies women
appear to have had a number of rights, many equal
to those of men. Yet the ways in which power and
status were visibly demonstrated varied between
men and women, so one must recognize what these
differences mean. One also sees evidence for indi-
viduals who did not fit within a conventional gender
role. There is still much to be done with regard to
understanding how these people negotiated their
positions in society, but the first step is acknowledg-
ing the complexities of social identity in the past.
See also Gender (vol. 1, part 1).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bitel, Lisa M. “Tír inna mBan: Domestic Space and the
Frontiers of Gender in Early Medieval Ireland.” In
Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity. Edited by Ralph
W. Mathisen and Hagith S. Sivan, pp. 242–255. Alder-
shot, Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1996.
Conkey, Margaret W., and Janet D. Spector. “Archaeology
and the Study of Gender.” In Advances in Archaeologi-
cal Method and Theory. Vol. 7. Edited by Michael B.
Schiffer, pp. 1–38. New York: Academic Press, 1984.
Crawford, Sally. Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud,
U.K.: Sutton, 1999.
Dickinson, Tania M. “An Anglo-Saxon ‘Cunning Woman’
from Bidford-on-Avon.” In The Archaeology of Anglo-
Saxon England. Edited by Catherine E. Karkov, pp.
359–373. New York: Garland, 1999.
Fell, Christine. Women in Anglo-Saxon England. London:
British Museum Publications, 1984.
Flaherty, Christine. “Sex, Gender, and Identity in Early
Anglo-Saxon England: A DNA and Archaeological
Analysis at West Heslerton.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia
University, forthcoming.
Gilchrist, Roberta. Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the
Past. London: Routledge, 1999.
Halsall, Guy. Settlement and Social Organization: The Mero-
vingian Region of Metz. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.
Härke, Heinrich. “Early Anglo-Saxon Social Structure.” In
The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the
Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective. Edited by
John Hines, pp. 125–170. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.:
Boydell Press, 1997.
Hastorf, Christine. “Gender, Space, and Food in Prehisto-
ry.” In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehisto-
ry. Edited by Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkey,
pp. 132–159. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991.
Haughton, Christine, and Dominic Powlesland. West Hes-
lerton: The Anglian Cemetery. Yedingham, Malton,
U.K.: Landscape Research Centre, 1999.
Knapp, A. Bernard. “Who’s Come a Long Way, Baby?
Masculinist Approaches to a Gendered Archaeology.”
Archaeological Dialogues 5, no. 2 (1998): 91–125.
Lucy, Sam. The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death: Burial Rites in
Early England. Stroud, U.K.: Sutton, 2000.
7: EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
364
ANCIENT EUROPE
———. “Housewives, Warriors, and Slaves? Sex and Gender
in Anglo-Saxon Burials.” In Invisible People and Process-
es: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Ar-
chaeology. Edited by Jenny Moore and Eleanor Scott,
pp. 150–168. London: Leicester University Press,
1997.
Stoodley, Nick. The Spindle and the Spear: A Critical Enqui-
ry into the Construction and Meaning of Gender in the
Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Rite. BAR British Series, no.
288. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1999.
C
HRISTINE E. FLAHERTY
GENDER IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
ANCIENT EUROPE
365
EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
■
Animal husbandry was well established by the Euro-
pean Iron Age. Two major cultural influences in the
barbarian world merged with classical Mediterra-
nean tradition in the Carpathian basin. Areas west
of the Danube had close ties with the rest of Eu-
rope, most directly with the Hallstatt culture (type
site: Austria), extending to Britain between the
ninth and fifth centuries
B.C. Celtic tribes expanded
from their homeland in northern France and south-
ern Germany toward southern Europe and Asia
Minor as well as the British Isles between the eighth
and third centuries
B.C. Meanwhile, the Great Hun-
garian Plain east of the Danube fell under the influ-
ence of pre-Scythian and Scythian cultures from the
northern Pontic (Black Sea) region during the Early
Iron Age (late seventh century
B.C.). From the first
century
A.D. waves of additional migrations lashed
the eastern frontiers of Europe.
Celtic influences met Scythian tradition in the
barbarian world of central Europe. Classicism, rep-
resented by ancient Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman
cultures, flanked these geopolitical developments
from the south. Records on animal husbandry origi-
nate from the latter, Mediterranean/Pontic, region.
Beginning with the description by the Greek histo-
rian Herodotus (in the fifth century
B.C.) of fero-
cious “Scythian nomads” of the steppe, classical ste-
reotypes of mobile pastoralists were recycled and
homogenized throughout antiquity. Meanwhile,
advanced Roman animal breeding is reflected in
seminal works by Marcus Terentius Varro, Pliny the
Elder, and Columella (first century
B.C. to the first
century
A.D.)
Most differences between the Celtic, Mediter-
ranean, and steppe types of animal husbandry were
rooted in their respective geographical environ-
ments. Prehistoric agriculture had reached north-
central and western Europe millennia earlier across
the Balkans. Natural habitats in Mediterranean Eu-
rope favored the early establishment of cereal culti-
vation, viticulture, and the keeping of cattle as well
as sheep and goats. People in the Celtic homeland
(similarly to northern Germanic tribes inhabiting
neighboring areas) had long relied on hunting and
pigs, ubiquitous in cool and humid forest regions.
Steppe peoples adapted to vast, continental plains
by developing mobile pastoralism, with little reli-
ance on cultivation and an emphasis on sheep and
goat keeping. Their horses also were used for a great
variety of purposes.
Animal keeping, however, should not be viewed
with rigid environmental determinism. As empires
expanded and reached various areas and people
moved around, their traditions blended and inter-
acted, so that by the Iron Age all the important do-
mestic animals were kept in these three cultural
regions.
CELTS, GERMANS, AND
CLASSICAL TRADITION
Owing to the Celts’ sedentary, often urbanized way
of life, their animal keeping did not differ markedly
from that of the Greeks and Romans. One of the
few distinguishing features are the many pig bones
at such sites as the Celtic oppidum (fortified urban
settlement) of Manching in Bavaria and many smal-
366
ANCIENT EUROPE
ler sites across Europe. Although beef and mutton
also were eaten, pork and boar were of special im-
portance. Pig bones commonly occur in Celtic buri-
als. Pork also played a mythical role in divine feast-
ing in the hall of dead warriors (Bruiden in Irish
Celtic and Valhalla in Norse mythology). Wild boar,
one of the most dangerous game animals in Europe,
accompanies Arduinna, continental Celtic goddess
of the moon and hunting, often equated with Diana
in Roman mythology. Boars are depicted frequently
both as decorative motifs and symbols (fig. 1). In
such provinces as Pannonia, boars are shown on the
tombstones of Romanized Celts.
The small, unimproved Celtic domesticates that
have been reconstructed from bone finds (such as
those kept by Germans and other peoples in the
Barbaricum) often are contrasted with advanced
Roman “breeds.” This term should be used cau-
tiously when evidence for conscious selection is ab-
sent, but the large size and great variation of animal
Fig. 1. Bronze statuette of a pig, Báta, Celtic. Pigs played an important role in Celtic economy
and symbolism alike. PHOTO BY ANDRÁS DABASI. HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION
.
bones from Roman sites illustrate advanced animal
husbandry, as described by classical authors. Repre-
sentations such as Trajan’s Column, from
A.D. 113,
show livestock whose body conformations appear
modern, even by today’s standards.
Size differences between the bones from bar-
barian and classical domesticates are stark. Another
sign of developed animal husbandry, a greater diver-
sity in size and shape, is especially striking in dog
remains from Roman provincial settlements in
present-day Germany and Hungary—lapdogs, grey-
hounds, and giant forms, exceeding the size of
modern-day Alsatians, are represented equally. Such
extremes are rare among coeval Celtic dogs in these
areas.
“NOMADIC” TRADITION
Peoples from the steppe usually are referred to with
the catchall term “nomadic,” disregarding the com-
plexity of pastoral societies. While pasturing is cen-
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
ANCIENT EUROPE
367
tral to such communities, their seasonal patterns of
herding and degrees of sendentariness vary broadly.
Theoretically, the entire community of “pure” no-
mads covered long distances meridionally in a
never-ending search for seasonal graze, with no land
cultivation. Pastoralism in this extreme form is a
highly specialized, precarious way of life. Its stability
depends on mobility between different natural habi-
tats, determined by the quality and size of pastures
in combination with the speed of movements. Sar-
matians, Kalmyks, and some groups of Kazakhs
lived this way. The majority of steppe communities,
however, included contingents of sedentary agricul-
turalists as well as major power centers. They could
be called, at best, seminomadic. Mobile pastoralism,
central to their economy, is a common denominator
for past communities. Its technical homogeneity has
led to functional similarities between the material
and spiritual cultures of many peoples in the vast
Eurasian steppe, where perpetual motion greatly in-
tensified contacts and exchange between various
groups at all levels.
MOBILE PASTORALISM AND
CLASSICAL TRADITION
Scythian tribes included both equestrian nomads
and sedentary agriculturalists who inhabited the
Eurasian steppe north of the Black Sea. Characteris-
tic of their culture were kurgans (burial mounds),
many of them in the Dnieper River region, in which
Scythian leaders were interred with grave goods of
legendary richness, including dozens of horses.
Treasures recovered from these graves are decorated
with animal motifs showing Greek and Persian in-
fluences. Mythical creatures and hunting scenes
dominate this artwork, although the evidence for
hunting is scarce among the mundane archaeo-
zoological finds.
Scythian settlements between the Dnieper and
the Volga region had an overwhelming dominance
of domesticates. Sometimes animal husbandry also
is represented on precious metal objects. Most fa-
mous are the horse-catching scenes on the fourth
century
B.C. gilded silver amphora from Chertomlyk
(near the Dnieper River in the Ukraine) and animals
on the gold pectoral from Tolstaya Mogila (some
10 kilometers from Chertomlyk). The latter piece
weighs more than a kilogram and has a diameter of
more than 30 centimeters. Composed of three ex-
centric circles (joined with the clasp in the back),
the outer band of the pectoral is decorated with
mythical and wild creatures from griffins to locusts.
Separated by a band of floral ornaments, the third,
inner band documents the domestic sphere of life.
Two Scythians in the center sew a piece of sheep-
skin, while another milks a ewe (fig. 2). Stylistically,
it is likely that a Greek goldsmith in a colonial town
in the northern Pontic region made this piece some-
time in the fourth century
B.C. The figures look
Scythian, but it is difficult to tell whether the wild/
domestic dichotomy reflects western or eastern tra-
ditions.
In a less spectacular form, artifacts decorated in
animal style also are known from areas occupied by
Scythians in eastern Hungary. Their animal hus-
bandry in the Carpathian Basin can be reconstruct-
ed from bone finds at a few rural settlements. In ad-
dition to remains of small-bodied cattle, a relatively
large number of horse bones (including those of
very young foals) occur among the food refuse. The
bony cores of large goat horns also point to the east-
ern pastoral tradition of these communities. A chari-
ot grave with two horses, found at Szentes-
Vekerzug on the Great Hungarian Plain, reflects the
importance of these animals in all spheres of life.
Having defeated the Scythians in the Pontic re-
gion, Iranian-speaking Sarmatian pastoralists
reached the Carpathian Basin during the first centu-
ry
A.D., approximately at the time the Romans con-
quered Celtic areas in its western half, establishing
the province of Pannonia. With their westward ex-
pansion blocked, Sarmatians and other barbarian
tribes spent four centuries in the shadow of the
Roman Empire, often in shifting, short-term alli-
ances. This probably strengthened their ethnocul-
tural identity, preserving their eastern pastoral tradi-
tion. Small relative frequencies of bones from pig
and poultry illustrate this conservative tendency. Al-
though in environmental terms the Great Hungari-
an Plain represents the westernmost section of the
Eurasian steppe, it is far too small for long-distance,
nomadic herding. To many steppe peoples who
ended up there, it represented a dead end in terms
of long-range, annual migrations. Mobility of live-
stock became less of a priority.
Various written references to the importance of
Sarmatian cavalry are in agreement with the high
ratio of horse remains in the food refuse at Sarma-
7: EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
368
ANCIENT EUROPE
Fig. 2. Highly developed Scythian mobile art often depicted scenes of sophisticated animal
husbandry. THE ART ARCHIVE/HERMITAGE MUSEUM SAINT PETERSBURG/DAGLI ORTI. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION
.
tian rural sites. (Among these references are those
to the mastering by Germanic Quadi of Sarmatian
cavalry tactics, a notation of eight thousand Sarma-
tian horsemen demanded by the Roman Empire fol-
lowing a defeat in
A.D. 175, and the delivery of two
thousand mounted warriors to the Romans by the
defeated alliance of Sarmatians and Germanic Van-
dals/Suebians in
A.D. 270.) Steppe rituals associated
with horses are evidenced by intact horse skulls
found at various settlements.
It seems that in peacetime Sarmatians traded
livestock and animal products with Roman prov-
inces, in exchange for high-quality Roman craft
products (e.g., stamped ware and glass). Sarmatian
cattle bones look small and nondistinct. Giant horn
cores of rams, however, are indicative of impressive
individuals in the sheep flocks. It is difficult to tell
whether these animals originated from steppe stocks
or represent improved Roman “breeds,” adopted
by these skillful pastoralists.
POST-ROMAN DEVELOPMENTS
As hordes of Germanic and Asiatic barbarians
brought down the Roman Empire in the fifth cen-
tury
A.D., warhorses again best represented barbar-
ian animal husbandry. Mounted warriors literally
spearheaded these migrations, in keeping with the
tactical necessities of migration through hostile
areas. Flavius Vegetius Renatus, in his veterinary
handbook on horses, wrote that Hun horses “have
large heads . . . with no fat at all on the rump....
The leanness of the horses is striking.... Their
ugly appearance . . . is set off by their fine qualities:
sober nature, cleverness and their ability to endure
any injury.” Note the striking difference between
this description, and the coeval, idealized picture of
a royal mount from the steppe region.
Between
A.D. 567 and 804 Asiatic Avars occu-
pied the Carpathian Basin, creating an ethnically
heterogeneous empire, including the ruins of
Roman Pannonia. The custom of burying warriors
with their horses has preserved hundreds of com-
plete horse skeletons for study. Most were stallions
or geldings, more lightly built than modern ponies,
on average 135 centimeters tall at the withers. They
probably represent animals selected by the practical
necessities of light cavalry. Avar warriors introduced
stirrups to Europe, which, together with saddles
with high pommels, helped mounted archers rise
and fire their short reflex bows in almost any direc-
tion.
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
ANCIENT EUROPE
369
The composition of food refuse from early Avar
settlements often resembles that of the Sarmatians,
but the growing contribution of pig and poultry
over time in grave goods may indicate an increasing-
ly sedentary lifestyle. In comparison with Slavic set-
tlements, Avar period animal bone assemblages look
definitely more nomadic. A summary of animal
bone percentages from numerous sites of the sev-
enth to ninth centuries, representing various cul-
tures, shows that the significance of horsemeat de-
creased in an eastward direction across the steppe.
Pork was hardly eaten in the east but was important
in sedentary Slavic cultures. Beef and mutton show
a less consistent pattern.
The next migrants from the steppe, the Mag-
yars, conquered the Carpathian Basin in about
A.D.
895. They waged ruthless equestrian raids, rooted
in their mobile pastoralist tradition, into much of
civilized Europe for more than fifty years. The horse
heads and feet buried in some of their graves proba-
bly come from skinned animals. Magyar horses
therefore are more difficult to reconstruct than their
Avar counterparts, to which they are similar in ap-
pearance. This does not mean that the two stocks
were related, but they probably were shaped by sim-
ilar military needs.
Early Magyar meat consumption focused on
beef and mutton, with an unusually high average
proportion of horsemeat. Pope Gregory III banned
hippophagy (horse-eating) in Europe in the eighth
century, as Germanic tribes were converted to
Christianity. As Magyars established a Christian
kingdom in Hungary (
A.D. 1000), horse eating
gradually declined. Pork also started contributing
more to the diet, as it had with the Sarmatians and
Avars.
Because Magyars (i.e., Hungarians) survived in
the Carpathian Basin, there is much speculation
about the genetic continuity of their modern do-
mesticates. A mythical animal of the conquering
Magyars was, supposedly, a breed of longhorn cat-
tle, which is today called the Hungarian gray. It is
reminiscent of the Marreman breed in Italy, which
is said to have been introduced by the Huns. This
historical confusion is exacerbated by skull finds
showing that all peoples of steppe origin (Sarma-
tians, Avars, and Magyars) kept small, short-horned
cattle. Archaeological evidence for long-horned ani-
mals comes centuries later in the wake of the Middle
Ages. Many pastoral communities kept large guard
dogs. The striking similarity between a skull from
the period of the Magyar conquest (ninth century)
and a modern Hungarian Kuvasz, however, is root-
ed more in function than genetic continuity. Owing
to their high reproductive rates, dog breeds can
change especially rapidly.
See also Hallstatt (vol. 2, part 6); Oppida (vol. 2, part 6);
Huns (vol. 2, part 7); Hungary (vol. 2, part 7).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bartosiewicz, László. “A Millennium of Migrations: Proto-
historic Mobile Pastoralism in Hungary.” In Zooar-
chaeology: Papers to Honor Elizabeth S. Wing. Edited by
F. Wayne King and Charlotte M. Porter. Bulletin of the
Florida Museum of Natural History 44, no. 1 (2003):
101–130.
———. “The Hungarian Grey Cattle: A Traditional Euro-
pean Breed.” Animal Genetic Resources Information 21
(1997): 49–60.
———. “Early Medieval Archaeozoology in Eastern Eu-
rope.” In Bioarchäologie und Frühgeschichtsforschung.
Edited by H. Friesinger, F. Daim, E. Kanelutti, and O.
Cichocki, pp. 123–132. Vienna: Institut für Ur- und
Frühgeschichte der Universität Wien, 1993.
Bökönyi, Sándor. “Über die Entwicklung der Sekun-
därnutzung.” In Beiträge zur Archäozoologie und
Prähistorischen Anthropologie. Edited by M. Kokabi and
J. Wahl. Stuttgart, Germany: Landesdenkmalamt
Baden-Württemberg, Konrad Theiss Verlag, 1994.
———. Animal Husbandry and Hunting in Tác-Gorsium:
The Vertebrate Fauna of a Roman Town in Pannonia.
Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.
———. History of Domestic Mammals in Central and East-
ern Europe. Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó,
1974.
Khazanov, Anatoly M. Nomads and the Outside World. 2d
ed. Translated by Julia Crookenden. Madison: Univer-
sity of Wisconsin Press, 1994.
Laszlovszky, József, ed. Tender Meat under the Saddle: Cus-
toms of Eating, Drinking, and Hospitality among Con-
quering Hungarians and Nomadic Peoples. Krems, Aus-
tria: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 1998.
Matolcsi, János. Állattartás ˝oseink korában [Animal keeping
in the time of our ancestors]. Budapest, Hungary: Gon-
dolat Kiadó, 1982.
L
ÁSZLÓ BARTOSIEWICZ
7: EARLY MIDDLE AGES/MIGRATION PERIOD
370
ANCIENT EUROPE