Archaeozoological remains from the Bagaevka settlement

The paper presents a study of animal bone remains, 12,936 fragments in total, from excavations of Bagaevka, which is a large rural settlement dating to the second half of the 13th-14th centuries in the Lower Volga region. The methodological scheme developed in the Laboratory of Scientific Methods in the Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, was used. The taxоnomic set comprises mammals, birds, fish and mollusks. Remains of domesticated ungulates, i.e. large and small horned cattle, horses, and pigs account for the largest part of the collection. The analysis of meat consumption at the settlement and the reconstruction of the relative number of domesticated ungulates in its economic system suggest that large-scale raising of cattle for meat to be supplied to Ukek, a nearby large city, was an important occupation of the settlement's inhabitants.