Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 13 (1968) (Pécs, 1971)

Régészet - Kralovánszky, Alán: The Paleosociographical Reconstruction of the Eleventh Century Population of Kérpuszta. Methodological Study

36 KRALOVÁNSZKY acteristic if we consider also the relative age in the cemetery. In section I 1/3 of the men have grave-furniture, then the proportion decreases. On the contrary, in section II only men above 30 years are buried with grave-goods. As to women, this picture is more or less identical with that of the whole cemetery (Table 11, Fig. 4). 4. The division of dead with grave-goods according to sex and age. Kérpuszta. At Kérpuszta a total of 60 pathological deformations could be proved on the bones.

39 19 of the 60 dead were provided with grave-furniture. This proportion of the occurrence of grave-goods (31,6 per cent) is almost identical with the ratio observed in the entire cemetery (34,4 per cent), consequently a distinction to the disadvantage of persons with a decreased capacity to work in life and death (the majority of the pathological deformations is rheumatic, i. e. locomotor disorders) is out of question at Kérpuszta. We get a similar picture if we investigate the same phenomenon either according to the sex ratio, or in relation to the inner chronology of the cemetery. We get a similar picture if we investigate the problem of provision with grave-goods in the following : 1. Only one third of the Kérpuszta population was provided with grave-furniture for the journey to the Nether World. 2. Among them the overwhelming majority consisted of women, a minor number was made up of children (exidently females) and only an insignificant minority consisted of imen. 3. In this case the provision with gravegoods is a function of sex and age. Women received them in the reproductive (mainly juvenile) and senile, men in the adult and senile age groups. 39 Nemeskéri—Harsányt, 1959. We note that the 60 cases are divided as follows: children 2, females 21, males 37. Mild 37, medium 20, grave 3 cases. 4. No difference whatever may be observed from the pathological and the taxonomical points of view, the proportions are the same (Table 12.). 5. Regarding this problem in the relative inner chronology of the cemetery, all phenomena seem to occur more intensely in the early phase than in the later one. This fact is presumably due to the development and strengthening of Feudalism and Christianity. b) The Occurence of Types of Finds in General Investigating the quantity of the various types of finds in the graves, we notice that the lack of any grave-furniture represents a high percentage, and the objects show little variety; the whole makes a poorish impression. There is no case which would be conspicuous for its variety. In most cases only one kind of object was placed into the grave (22Д) per cent), in one third of the former cases only two kinds were inhumed, then in one third of the latter percentage three kinds of objects (Table 13). Generally we may state that the community buried at Kérpuszta shows no economic or social differences as judged by the occurrence of various types of objects in the graves. Consequently the society seems to have lived on generally identical levels both as regards wealth and social standing. Considering the inner chronology of the cemetery, we gain the same result. The division of objects is quantitatively identical also in this case. There is not much difference generally between sexes as regards the numerical occurrence of the types of finds. For the rest, the most kinds of objects were given to women, less to children, whereas the least variety is noticed in male graves. Most of the men were buried with a single object, while the occurence of adding 2, 3 and 4 objects represents an arithmetical proportion in the case of women and children, a geometric one in the case of men. The same is valid for the inner chronology of the cemetery; only the males show a relative and absolute decrease in section II. Table 14 and Figure 5, respectively, illustrate that there is a connection between the number of types of finds per grave and the age. On the basis of the interpolated mean value the graph rises from 0 year gradually, reaches its peak between 20 and 40 years, and falls from step to step afterwards. We may conclude from this that the most types of objects were given to people in the reproductive age. The grouping according to taxonomical definitions is of the same order as that of the whole cemetery (Table 15).