The consumption of meat within late medieval castles

Abstract

This contribution presents and interprets the results of the analysis of fauna relics from the Pustý hrad Castle in Zvolen in Central Slovakia. The analysed series comes from the Upper castle, from the half of the 13th to the 14th centuries. A total of 6082 bone fragments weighing about 28 kg were processed. In addition to standard quantification methods (MNI, NISP and weight), the age of the animals and the relative quality of the meat from the body parts represented were also analysed. At the same time, the analysis also considered individual buildings, their location and function, and thus the differences in the representation of species in individual units. Comparisons of results with analogous collections from the late medieval castles of the Hungarian and Czech Kingdoms were not left out either.