Dr. I. Pap szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 22. Budapest, 1992)

more recent infiltrations of elements of the same southern component which took place in the Arpad period and later, too. Our material included a sufficiently numerous contingent from every subcontinent of Eurasia and from the earlier periods of human history. We found that the praeauricular-faciocerebral relation seems to be suitable for the differentiation of the two main craniological subdivisions i. e. the massive broad-faced and the gracile narrow-faced components of the Europoid race-stock. Thus the northern confine of the dispersion of hypomorphic peculiarities extends from the estuary of the river Rhine in the West to the Mountain Massive of the Tien-Shan in the East while a relative homogeneity of both sexes characterized the Neolithic and Paleometallic epoch. These correlative data also confirm the hypothesis that the AlpineCarpathian zone was the area of the dispersion of morphological peculiarities of the Mediterranean race. The phenomena of brachycephalisation and gracilization can be regarded as fundamental manifestations of the epochal changes. When applying this to the Central Danubian region an increase of the cranial index can be observed from the La Tene period till our times. The mean values of this index are higher for the females than for the males in every period. The process of brachycephalisation became most intensive in the late Medieval period. The transversal diameter of the neurochranium increased with 8.4 mm in the male series, whereas in the female one with 7.0 mm from the Neolithic till present. The identical values of the transversal diameter in the female group of the Conquering Hungarians on the one side and in the final Medieval male series on the other side express the genealogical lines according to this measurement. Orthrocrany and mesoprosopy appeared as characteristic patterns during the last two millennia. The process which led to the formation of an approximative equilibrium between the gracile narrow-faced and the massive broad-faced components, the main determinants in the origin of the Central Danubian variant, took place in this period. It deserves attention that the values of the bizygomatic diameter and that of upper-facial height reflect a strong prominance within the general epochal trend in the period of Conquering Hungarians. The rate of epochal changes of various craniological traits was determined by some environmental factors with natural character (climate, soil, nutrition) as well as by social ones (agriculture, settlement, infiltration) and it was manifested by the common or controversial effect in the Central Danubian region, too. The gradual increase of the population density starting in the Neolithic (despite epidemics and various natural catastrophes) proved to be an important factor promoting infiltrations among various groups. It contributed to the widening of marital connections, i. e. to the rearrangement of the morphological trait complexes as well as to the appearance of race-variants (with a short time diapason). Some regional complexes which were delimited according to the cranial index and the bizygomatic diameter may be regarded as determinants in the formation of the Central Danubian variant. Thus the dolichocran, medium broad-faced complex evoluted in Transdanubia whereas a subbrachycran, relatively broad-faced complex on the Danube-Tisza interfluvial in the Avar Period. The mesocran, medium broadfaced complex (Transdanubia) appeared in the Arpadian age as well as the dolichomesocran, relatively narrow-faced complex (Danube-Tisza interfluvial), a mesodolichocran, medium broad-faced (southern part of the Trans-Tisza Plain). The coordination of the cranial index and the bizygomatic breadth made the mutual race-genetical interactions among the mentioned parts of the Central Danubian region conspicuous from the beginnings of the Avar Epoch till the final period of the Arpadian age (700 years, approximately 27 generations). The Conquering Hungarians and some groups of the central somatological complex (Kunság, Southern Palóc, Taktaköz) are very close to each other according to the cranial index as well as to the bizygomatic breadth in the topography applied. The other somatological groups are much closer to the Conquering Hungarians than to the series of the late Medieval and that of the recent populations. These analogies gave evidence of the decisive role of the anthropological composition of Conquering Hungarians in the race- and ethnogenesis of the living population in the Central Danube region. It could be stated that in the morphological composition of the Conquering Hungarians the Andronovean type was determinative and it became a constituent in the formation of the Central Danubian variant, being present in the central somatological complex of living Hungarians on the basis of wide-ranging