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Птиците на римския град Никополис ад Иструм (II–VI в.) край с. Никюп, Ловешка област [The birds of the Roman town of Nicopolis ad Istrum (2nd–6th c.) at Nikjup, Lovech Region]


Златозар Боев [Zlatozar Boev]

27 December 1991 · volume 3 · pp. 92–102 · PDF [full text]

Abstract: [no abstract available originally]

[Summary]: In the course of British excavations (1986–1989) 962 bones and bone fragment were collected. Out of them 707 have been determined up to the species level, 10 up to the genus, 153 — family level, and 4 — order level. Eighty eight of the bones are unidentifiable. Established are 31 species of birds, 18 of them game fowl. Most frequent among the game are grey partridge and quail. Greylag geese, colchic pheasants, rock partridges, mallards, teals, woodpigeons. rock dove and ferral pigeons, turtle doves, bustards etc. (Table 1). 60,4% of game fowl meat came from waterfowl. Poultry breeding was represented by the domestic fowl in two breeds for meat and eggs and a decorative breed. Between 1/3 and half of the meat consumed came from domestic fowl. One quarter of the the fowl eaten were eaten as chicken. The cock:hen ratio was 14:19. There is ground to suppose that the sparrowhawk and goshawk were trained and used for falconry. The average state of preservation of bones is 6,1%. Domestic fowl bones are best preserved — in 9,8% of all cases. Of all bones the phalanges of the legs and vertebrae are best preserved, of the long bones — coracoids, and tarsometatarsi (Table 2). For the first time in Bulgarian archeozoological literature data on 10 birds species is published: the bearded vulture, nutcracker, stock-dove, alpine chough, woodpigeon, the rock partridge, garganey, and house sparrow. The data on the colchic pheasant confirms that the species was generally present in all river valleys in Northeast Bulgaria. This data complements the information of its earlier distribution and reduction of its range.

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