Leather for the Legions? Reconstructing the Middle Danube Livestock Trade (20 min)

Presenters

Timothy C. Hart, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Abstract

This paper examines faunal assemblages from several Roman-era settlement sites located in the Hungarian plain east of the middle Danube river, in order to sketch out a model for economic relations between the Sarmatian peoples living in this unusual borderland region and the Roman Empire. The plains between the Danube and Tisza Rivers, usually known to scholars as the Sarmatian barbaricum, are surrounded on three sides by Roman provinces, and by mountains on the fourth. While there is some evidence for long-distance trade between the Sarmatian Iazyges who inhabited this area and their cultural relatives on the Pontic steppe, funerary and settlement sites reveal that trade with Rome was far more important. While it is well known what the Iazyges imported from Rome (mainly beads, fibulae, ceramics, and metal items), there is less clear evidence of what the Sarmatians exported in exchange. This paper examines the proportions of different domesticated animals within Sarmatian faunal assemblages as well as the age profiles of these domesticates. From this evidence, as well as comparisons with medieval systems from the same region, I suggest a model for the Iazyges economy based on large-scale raising and export of cattle. The paper also considers the social and historical implications of this economic system. With limited options for trade outside the empire, the Iazyges—particularly their elite—became progressively more dependent on commerce with Rome, a trend observable in the proliferation of Roman items within Sarmatian grave assemblages. From a Roman perspective, this economic dependence allowed the empire to effectively manage their Sarmatian neighbors by controlling access to the large markets associated with major frontier military sites like Aquincum (Budapest), a tactic mentioned by Cassius Dio and other historians when describing Roman wars within the region.

  AIA-7A