Pages: 197-206

The author focuses on a relation between urbanization and changes in meat consumption among the dwellers of medieval towns in the Middle and Lower Volga area. Methodology elaborated by the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences specially for palaeoeconomic reconstructions allowed conducting an archaeozoological study of animal bone collections from archaeological digs on seven urban sites (Bolgarskoe, Uvekskoe, Vodyanskoe, Tzarevskoe, Selitrennoe, Moshaik, Samosdelskoe fortified settlements) in three chronological periods: pre-Mongol, Early Golden Horde and Late Golden Horde. It was established that beef predominated in meat diet of the urban citizens in each of the three periods, followed by mutton and horse meat. Very similar spectrums of meat consumption in almost every town in the mid 14 th c., whenever it emerged or whatever its tradition of meat consumption, expressly demonstrate presence of a well planned agricultural district around them.

Keywords: medieval town, Golden Horde, urbanization, archaeozoological studies, meat consumption

Information about author:

Lilia Yavorskaya (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation; Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Paleoanthropology and paleogenetics laboratory. Kremlevskaia St. 18, Kazan, 420000, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]