ZooMS as a tool for identifying animal remains from Early Medieval Pohansko: A case study

Pohansko, located near Břeclav, is a significant archaeological site in the Czech Republic, as it was one of the major centers of Great Moravia. At the site, numerous animal remains were discovered. Those remains provide critical insights into past dietary practices and human-animal interactions in Early Medieval Moravia. However, the high degree of fragmentation of these remains often makes species identification by using traditional morphological methods difficult. This study applies Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to 65 previously unidentified bone fragments from the north-eastern suburb (severovýchodní předhradí) at Pohansko, demonstrating the method’s effectiveness in species identification. Through collagen fingerprinting, we successfully identified the species for53 out of 65 samples, revealing a mix of domesticated (cattle, pig, goat, sheep, horse, chicken) and wild (deer, beaver, European hare) species. In total, 12 samples did not produce identifiable spectra, most likely due to the degradation of collagen. The results highlight the complementary role of hunting alongside animal husbandry in the Great Moravian settlement. This study demonstrates that ZooMS is a powerful tool for analyzing highly fragmented faunal skeletal remains and improving the reconstruction of past human-animal interactions.