Abstract
Extremely rich finds from more than 100 burial grounds and 6,000 graves in SW Slovakia testify to the significance of animals in burial customs of Slavic and Avar tribes in the Carpathian Basin (7th-8th cent. AD).
Despite the inter-site variations in species, age and sex, elements deposited and their location in graves, the most important were domestic animals, among others the cattle, sheep and chicken. Together with the eggs of poultry, they represent the most common food and symbolic offerings.
The graves of horsemen with complete body of horse buried next to rider are usually present in the Avar period. In addition to the deposited animals or their body parts, solitary burned bones scattered in the graves' backfill indicate consumption or incineration of animals in further parts of the funeral ritual.
Until recently, the only carnivore occurring in the Avar period burials was the domestic dog. Yet, the new analysis of the archaeofaunal material from Obid brought to light an unexpected discovery of a feline skeleton in one of the graves.
In our poster we present osteological and palaeogenetic research confirming that the animal bone remains accompanying an old man belong to a young adult domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus L.) skinned shortly before or during the funeral ceremony. We also present two 14C dates on cat and one on human bone collagen, and discuss the need of IRMS identification of aquatic reservoir offsets.
This research was supported by OP RDE, MEYS under the project Ultra-trace isotope research in social and environmental studies using accelerator mass spectrometry, Reg. No.
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/ 0000728, grant no. 2019/35/B/HS3/02923 funded by the National Science Centre, Poland and the project VEGA 1-0240-21 funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.