The socio-economic integration of Cumans in medieval Hungary : an archaeozoological approach
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The thesis focuses on the medieval Cuman community in 13th-17th-century Hungary. The Cumans migrated to the Carpathian Basin in the 13th century, and had to integrate into a settled, state-level society which was numerically superior. This also meant a transformation of their economy. They had practiced nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism in the steppe region but now they had to adapt to the economic environment of the Hungarian Kingdom. I investigated all archaeological sites that have been identified in the past decades as Cuman, and analyzed the animal bone material recovered from these sites. These finds provide direct biological information on the animals kept, slaughtered and consumed in these settlements, which dataset was then interpreted in a historical and cultural context. The thesis demonstrates that there is only a small difference between the Cuman and Hungarian faunal samples. The difference is statistically significant but the connection between ethnicity and faunal sample is weak. Most differences are rather to be explained by the given village's position in the settlement hierarchy. The early modern, market-oriented animal production on the Great Plain was by no means a continuation of steppe practices in any form.
DOI: 10.60644/2953
Author: Lyublyanovics, Kyra
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7171538245