Animal bones from the medieval settlement Otok (Gutenwerth)near Dobrava pri Škocjanu, Slovenia

Abstract

This study is an analysis of 452 animal bones from twosites of the medieval settlement at Otok (Gutenwerth), repre-senting the 12-14th century. The material was collected over30 years ago. Therefore, mostly complete, spectacular animalbones were saved at the time. Consequently, in spite of its smallsize, the assemblage carried high quality archaeozoological andculture historical information. While it was not sufficientlylarge for the detailed quantitative study of proportions betweendomesticates in animal keeping, individual remains revealedhigh quality information on meat consumption, medieval cat-tle breeding, craft activities (especially tanning) and skeletaldeformations possibly related to draught exploitation. Amongthe archaeological finds, horse and ox shoes are relevant tothis latter topic. In spite of its small size, this assemblage offersconcentrated zoological information that is indispensable ininterpreting the contemporaneous historical record

Keywords

• otok (gutenwerth); dobrava pri škocjanu; slo-venia; middle ages; meat consumption; cattle stature/live weight;draught exploitation; tanning; shoeing