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Romersk nötkreatur: Varför hade romarna nötkreatur?

Stelius, Christian LU (2014) AKSK04 20132
Classical archaeology and ancient history
Abstract (Swedish)
The aim of this essay is to establish what purpose Roman cattle had. Why did Roman farmers breed cattle? Were the animal’s main purpose to be used as draught animals, or were there other roles that were more important. I also want to establish how the different roles relate to each other, were the same animals used for different purposes. To do this I have chosen to study four Roman agricultural writers, Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius. I have also studied osteological materials, published by Michael MacKinnon. The written sources have been studied all the way through, and everything of importance has been presented and analyzed. The same has been done with the osteological source.

Overall it is clear from both the literary and... (More)
The aim of this essay is to establish what purpose Roman cattle had. Why did Roman farmers breed cattle? Were the animal’s main purpose to be used as draught animals, or were there other roles that were more important. I also want to establish how the different roles relate to each other, were the same animals used for different purposes. To do this I have chosen to study four Roman agricultural writers, Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius. I have also studied osteological materials, published by Michael MacKinnon. The written sources have been studied all the way through, and everything of importance has been presented and analyzed. The same has been done with the osteological source.

Overall it is clear from both the literary and osteological sources that the main purpose of cattle was to be used as draught animals. A large majority of individuals survived into adulthood, and the agricultural writers focus their writings on oxen as draught animals. Estimates of meat weights show that cattle had a large part in the Roman meat consumption. The age estimates however, show that most of the slaughtered animals were adults, which suggests that non profitable animals, such as old, weak and infertile, were sold off to butchers. The literary sources also support this, several authors write that the herds needed to be culled once a year. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Stelius, Christian LU
supervisor
organization
course
AKSK04 20132
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Nötkratur, Rom, jordbruk, djurhållning
language
Swedish
id
4227650
date added to LUP
2014-03-10 08:43:41
date last changed
2014-03-10 08:43:41
@misc{4227650,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this essay is to establish what purpose Roman cattle had. Why did Roman farmers breed cattle? Were the animal’s main purpose to be used as draught animals, or were there other roles that were more important. I also want to establish how the different roles relate to each other, were the same animals used for different purposes. To do this I have chosen to study four Roman agricultural writers, Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius. I have also studied osteological materials, published by Michael MacKinnon. The written sources have been studied all the way through, and everything of importance has been presented and analyzed. The same has been done with the osteological source. 

Overall it is clear from both the literary and osteological sources that the main purpose of cattle was to be used as draught animals. A large majority of individuals survived into adulthood, and the agricultural writers focus their writings on oxen as draught animals. Estimates of meat weights show that cattle had a large part in the Roman meat consumption. The age estimates however, show that most of the slaughtered animals were adults, which suggests that non profitable animals, such as old, weak and infertile, were sold off to butchers. The literary sources also support this, several authors write that the herds needed to be culled once a year.}},
  author       = {{Stelius, Christian}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Romersk nötkreatur: Varför hade romarna nötkreatur?}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}