Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 21. Budapest, 1990)

ANTHROPOLOGIA HUNGARICA XXI. 1990 p. 25-32 Craniological and palaeosomatological investigation on some series from the Central Danubian Basin* By E. FÓTHI & Á. FÓTHI (Received June 1,1990) Abstract. The authors assumed that nutrition has more effect on the growth of long bones than on the growth of skulls. Ten series were analyzed from the Central Danubian Basin. The series were characterized by male mean values. A great number of cluster analyses was carried out first based on craniological data and later based on postcranial data of the same series and the results were compared. The difference of the two sequences of investigation indicated differences or similarities in the way of life and social status. The archaeological data also supported this conclusion. With 3 tables and 2 figures. INTRODUCTION Usually conclusions are drawn from long bone measurements on stature, body weight, body proportions and the series are compared on this basis (DEBETS 1967, DEBETS & DURNOVO 1971, TÓTH 1986). Avar and Arpadian populations have already been the subject of a number of such investigations (LOTTERHOF 1976, PAP 1986). What we wanted to investigate was what additional information could be obtained on the distribution of historical populations on the differences of the way of life and social status by analyzing postcranial measurements alone. Presumably nutrition has more effect on the growth of long bones than on the growth of skulls. Therefore, we can conclude on some differences in nutrition, in the way of life and in social status from the different results produced by parallelly executed analyses of cranial and postcranial data. * Paper presented at the 6th Congress of the European Anthropological Association in Budapest, 1988.