Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Historico-anthropological studies (Anthropologia Hungarica 9/1-2. Budapest, 1970)
The problem of ethnics If the ethnic composition of the population in the Western Transdanubia of the ninth century be examined, the following constituting elements may be found to have survived in the Avar Period: Germanic, Bolgarian-Turklsh, and Slavic. The ethnic elements participating in the composition of the anthropological picture, with respect to the small family cemetery deriving from the ninth century, also remain to be clarified. If the problem is approached from a linguistic point of view,the names of localities and natural bodies of water imply that the Slavs formed a narrower layer in Upper Pannónia in the ninth century than in Lower Pannónia. It is also established that prior to the Hungarian Conquest, there lived Pranks and Bavarians, aside of the few Slavs, in the neighbourhood of Sopron (KNIEZSA, 1938). Historical investigations evince that the Transdanubian region west of the River Rába had had nearer connections with the Prankish Empire than with the Great Moravian one. The weapons found in the cemetery at Sopronkőhida from the ninth century emphasize the Prankonian strategic role of the settlement, while the rest of the archeological material refers to a mixed Avar- Slav- Prank population.The settlement had therefore probably belonged to the so-called Avar Province established by Charles the Great; also, the constituting population had to give military service (SÓS, 1967). On the basis of the related archeological objects, the archeological and historical statements referring to the cemetery at Sopronkőhida can, in the present case, be applied also to the small family cemetery at Sopron. Dr.J .NEMESKÉRI worked up anthropologically the cemetery at Sopronkőhida and has kindly allowed for publication the outlines of his anthropological evaluation. His findings can be summarized as follows. Three taxonomically delimited groups can be distinguished within the examined population: group A, representing 38 per cent of the population, broiip B (40 per cent), resembling group A and differing only in the rate of gracility from group C. „Groups A and B can, collectively, be regarded as varieties of the Mongoloidé great race; they have, as a result of an isolating process, preserved the taxonomically characterizing features in a special form. The interrelationship of groups A and B is supported also by the comparative examination of the anatomical variations. Eight anatomical variations can be established within the groups A and B, corroborating genetical connections. The third group of the population may be assigned taxonomically to the variant CroMagnoid C within the Europoide great race... This group is characterized by different anatomical variations." According therefore to Dr. NEMESKÉRI's interpretation, 78 per cent of the great cemetery can be considered to represent a variety of the Mongoloidé great race. The features of the Mongoloidé great race cannot be observed on the
