Pages: 207-230

The aim of the study is to analyze the role of animal husbandry and hunting among the Siverians. The database is composed of osteological remains of mammals from 20 residential sites and products that characterize the importance of animal husbandry and hunting. The total number of the sites is 28. Thirteen of the twenty complexes involved in the analysis contain materials on animal husbandry, eight on hunting and 14 allow a complex analysis. Cattle predominated in animal husbandry, small cattle and pigs ranked second to third, horses were approximately 1/10. The age composition of the herd indicates a developed animal husbandry and a good forage base. The tools of animal husbandry confirm tender care and active life-saving use.
Hunting depended on game and hunter skills. The most common prey were deer. Fur is represented mainly by fox. Probably some bone arrowheads represent fur hunting. We do not exclude the existence of the bear totem, as well as the importance of the beaver.
The ratio of animal husbandry (reproductive form) and hunting (appropriative form) indicates the active use of the gifts of nature not because of the lack of meat from animal husbandry, but because of the rational use of food sources.

Keywords: Eastern Europe, Early Middle Ages, Volyntsevo and Romny sites, archaeozoology, mammals, animal husbandry, hunting, productive economy, appropriative economy

Information about authors:


Serhiy Gorbanenko (Kyiv, Ukraine). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Heroiv Stalingradu Ave., 12, Kyiv, 04210, Ukraine.
E-mail: [email protected]
Oleg Zhuravlev. Candidate of Historical Sciences.