The Issue of Meat Product Supply of the Golden Horde Cities of the Lower Volga: new studies of archaeozoological collections

Abstract

Archaeozoological studies of the collections of bone remains of animals from the excavations of medieval monuments of the Lower Volga region have made it possible to approach the reconstruction of the economic situation in this region in the Middle Ages. As in the other regions of the Golden Horde state, beef was predominant in the cities, and the supply of meat products mainly came from the rural settlements of the district. This is reliably recorded for the pre-Mongol sites in the Volga delta and for the Golden Horde Ukek. The peculiarity of the economy of the Lower Volga left-bank sites - Tsarevskoe and Selitrennoe capital settlements, is that the resource area for rural settlements and cattle grazing is very small. In these cities, the lack of beef was made up by steppe breeding products - lamb and horse meat. Excavation No. 3 in the craft quarter of Selitrennoye settlement revealed the remains of large-scale slaughter of nomadic livestock and a hide processing workshop. It is known from written sources that the hides of bulls and horses were exported from the Golden Horde, but traces of large-scale slaughter of horses were recorded for the first time. Meat products of mutton and horse meat came to the city mainly from special ‘production’ groups of nomadic animals.