Animals in the life of the monks of the Dominican monastery in Łęczyca in light of the results of archaeozoological analysis

This article presents the results of an archaeozoological analysis of a collection of 1002 post-consumption bone remains, which were recovered from the site of a former Dominican Monastery inŁęczyca (Łódzkie Voivodeship, Poland). The material comes from excavations carried out in 2020-2021. The objective of the research was to reconstruct the meat consumption patterns, animal husbandry practices and economic importance of animals in the community residing in the monastery between the 2nd half of the 13th century and the end of the 18th century. The analysed mammal and bird remains were retrieved from layers that were dated to the 13th-16th century (Phase I) and the 16th-18th century (Phase II). The analysis of the Order of Preachers' culinary offerings revealed a diet consisting mainly of beef, followed by mutton, goat and pork. In addition to the benefits of keeping domesticated livestock, the friars also consumed poultry (mainly geese as well as, to a lesser extent, chickens, turkeys and ducks). They also made use of live poultry. Valuable parts of the carcass, obtained from animals of differing ages, were consumed. Hunting played a negligible role in their diet, as is evidenced by the presence of a very low proportion of bones from wild animals, such as roe deer, red deer and fox.