AN UNUSUAL BURIAL COMPANION: A FELINE SKELETON FROM THE AVAR PERIOD SITE IN OBID (SLOVAKIA) Background Extremely rich finds from more than 100 burial grounds and 6,000 graves in southern Slovakia testify to the significance of animals in burial customs of Slavic and Avar tribes in the Carpathian Basin (7 th –8 th cent. CE). The most important were domestic animals, among others the cattle, sheep and chicken. Together with the eggs of poultry, they represent the most common food and symbolic offerings. The graves of horsemen with complete body of horse buried next to rider are frequently found. In addition to the deposition of complete or partial carcasses, solitary burned bones scattered in the graves’ backfill indicate consumption or incineration of animals in further parts of the funeral ritual. Until recently, the only carnivore occurring in the Avar period burials in Slovakia was the domestic dog (cf. Ambros, 1993). Yet, new analysis of the archaeofaunal material from the site at Obid-Fényes árok, SW Slovakia brought to light a discovery of a complete feline skeleton (Zábojník, 2019). Aims The main aim of the interdisciplinary research was to identify the biological profile and domestic/wild status of the animal, the chronology of the find and signs of human activities connected with the animal deposition 1 Bratislava City Museum, Slovakia; 2 c/o Nuclear Physics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia; peterbarta.sk@icloud.com; 3 Institute of Archaeology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra, Slovakia; 4 Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Poland Peter Barta 1,2 , Zora Bielichová 3 , Danijela Popović 4 Man, maturus II – senilis Grave 102 human activities connected with the animal deposition within a human grave (e.g. bone modifications, burning, etc.). Archaeozoology A nearly complete cat skeleton (except for the vertebrae caudales) was found in an anatomical position (?) just above the human remains, in the area of the head and chest of the deceased. The preserved teeth of permanent dentition (caninus, premolars and molars) without significant abrasion as well as open epiphyses of long bones indicated that the animal died or was killed at 9–11 months of age (Habermehl, 1975). The unfinished growth does not permit a reliable evaluation of the osteometric data, but the measures obtained suggested a smaller size than the wild and modern domestic cats (Kratochvíl, 1973, 1976). Detailed analysis of the bone surface revealed that the cat's carcass had been manipulated by humans after the death. Short sharp notches made by knife, running transversely or obliquely to the longer axis of the bone, were identified on several long bones as well as the mandible, skull and ribs. Based on their location and comparison with similar findings (Lloveras et al., 2017), we relate them with the skinning of death animal. There were no traces of killing or pathological changes identified on the skeleton. Radiocarbon dating The feline and the human skeletons were dated. Two samples from cat bones were analysed, one in the Adam Mickiewicz University AMS Laboratory in Poznań and one in the Czech Radiocarbon Laboratory in Řež, where also a sample from the human clavicle was measured. For radiocarbon calibration OxCal with IntCal20 set to 5-year resolution were used (Bronk Ramsey, 1999, Reimer et al., 2020). Two 14 C dates of the cat bone collagen were combined before calibration [X2-Test: df=1 T=2.5(5% 3.8)] and gave under 95.4% probability 646–678 (94.0%) and 752–756 calCE (1.4%). The human bone collagen was dated to 672–774 calCE (95.4% probability). The combination of all three dates is statistically not supported [X2-Test: df=2 T=11.101(5% 6.0)]. The cat gave significantly older sin. ulna dx. radius dx. metacarpus 2 dx. mandibula sin. dx. Cat remains preservation Elements with cutmarks Site plan with human-cat grave (in red). : Ancient DNA analysis Genetic analysis was performed at the Centre of New technologies at the University of Warsaw, Poland in laboratory dedicated to work with ancient DNA (aDNA). All procedures recommended to avoid contamination in the work with aDNA were applied. DNA was extracted from petrous bone using silica- coated magnetic beads according to Rohland et al. (2018). Genomic DNA was used to prepare double- stranded and double-indexed libraries following a previously described procedure by Meyer and Kircher (2010). Target enrichment of mtDNA, sequencing on the illumina platform and bioinformatic work were performed using the same protocols as it described in Baca et al. (2018). Only positions with a minimum 3x coverage were called to obtain consensus sequence. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using Iqtree (Nguyen et al., 2015). To determine the mtDNA haplogroup of Obid cat we used 67 already published DNA sequences belonging to either F. s. silvestris (European wildcat) or F. s. lybica/catus (Near eastern wild cat or domestic cat) (Driscoll et al., 2007). The dataset consisted of all described mtDNA haplogroups of domestic cats. We found that the sample from obid possess mtDNA of domestic cat, exactly belonging to haplogroup IV-D (Driscoll et al., 2007). This haplogroup was assumed to be the one domesticated at Egypt and spread through Europe with Roman legions. of all three dates is statistically not supported [X2-Test: df=2 T=11.101(5% 6.0)]. The cat gave significantly older results than that of the human sample. However, as a consequence of human bone collagen offset (Barta and Štolc, 2007), 14 C date of the human sample (maturus II – senilis) was expected to predate the date measured on the 9–11 months old cat, which died at the same time as the human. Without results of δ 13 C and δ 15 N (IRMS) analyses yet, we hypothesise that the cat bone collagen activity is changed due to freshwater reservoir effect as a consequence of assumed diet (fish) of the feline. Therefore, we date the cat according to the 14 C date of human to 670–770 calCE. The Maximum Likelihood tree based on 2,604 bp of mtDNA. The sequence obtained for Obid cat (FS 155) is given in blue. References Ambros, C. (1993):Tierbeigaben aus den Gräbern des awarischen Reiches. In: H. Friesinger, F. Daim, E. Kanelutti/ O. Cichocki: Bioarchäologie und Frühgeschichtsforschung. Arch. Austriaca Monogr. 2, 111–122. Baca, M., Popović, D., Panagiotopoulou, H., Marciszak, A., Krajcarz, M., Krajcarz, M. 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Published sequences GenBank accession numbers are given. Numbers at the nodes represent bootstrap supports for the main mtDNA lienages. The tree rooted with F. margarita sequence (not shown). Acknowledgements Palaeogenetic analysis was financed by National Science Centre, Poland, grant no. 2019/35/B/HS3/02923 and archaeozoological research by grant no. VEGA 1-0240-21 funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. This work was supported by OP RDE, MEYS under the project Ultra-trace isotope research in social and environmental studies using accelerator mass spectrometry, Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/ 0000728.