Die Archäozoologie der Pest

For the first time, this book analyses the influence of the Late Medieval crisis [ca. A. D. 1300 to 1350] with the Great Famine [1315-17], St. Mary Magdalene’s Flood [1342], and Black Death [1347-1350] on animal husbandry. Find complexes from A. D. 800 to 1600 are attributed to one 200-year period [A1] and subsequent 50-year periods [A2-D2]. For the relevant phase [1300-1400] two case studies were run on material from Cologne Cathedral and Fischmarkt at Konstanz, which both revealed great change around 1350: cattle became less robust and were killed earlier, pigs were more robust due to the prevailing consumption of adult boars. Small ruminants decreased in number, with goats becoming insignificant in the harsh climate. The consumption of chicken meat and eggs increased. The volume ends with an overview of Germany as a whole divided into four major zones. This reveals a connection between the settlement type and the observed spectrum of animals, distribution between sexes, robustness, and size [e. g. prevalence of cattle in north German towns and pigs in central German castles] and a general loss of robustness and size of all domestic species after A. D. 1350.