Златозар Боев; Георги Рибаров [Zlatozar Boev; Georgi Ribarov]
31 December 1991 ·
volume 4 · pp. 68–77 ·
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Abstract: [no abstract available originally]
[Summary]: Seventeen bird taxa, 13 of them identified to the species level (Gallus gallus domestica, Anser anser domestica, Phasianus colchicus, Anas platyrhynchos, Strepiopelia turtur, Crex crex, Otis tarda, Grus grus, Anas strepera, Falco cherrug, Gyps fulvus, Anas querquedula, Buteo buteo, Anser sp., Ciconia ciconia/nigra, Gallus/Phasianus and Accipitridae indet.), are established on the base of 160 bones and bone fragments, aged 7th century B. C. to the 4th century A. D. The poultry farming have been based on domestic fowl — 67,4 per cent of all bones belong to G. gallus domestica. Kabyle is the most ancient settlement in Bulgaria, in which the bone remains of domestic birds have been discovered. The finds of domestic fowl indicate that the species appeared on the Balkans before the 6th century B. C. They are ones of the most ancient remains of the species in Europe at all. Two breeds of domestic fowl have been bred in Kabyle. One of them has been little smaller than most of the recent breeds of universal type, while the second one has been very small (500 to 800 g). A special selection in relation to increase of the hen-layers number has not been carried out. It is possible that some of the more well-to-do men have used some falconiform birds (Saker falcon for example) as trained birds for falconry. The bird meat have been cooked on indirect fire, and the scraps of food have been kept in the special covered places.