A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 42. (2003)

Kővári Ivett–Szathmáry László: A továbbélés megítélése az Ároktő, Csík-gát lelőhelyen feltárt 5–9. századi csontvázleletek alapján

Afterwards we analysed the whole data by principal component analysis. The craniological uniformity of the individuals was determined by applying the extracted factor scores. According to our examinations, the rate of the four samples' diversity was different. The sample from the Hun-Germanic period, i.e. from the V

th century, was characterised by the lowest degree of variability, especially with the males. A slighter degree of cohesion than that was revealed in the case of Early Avar peoples. The population of the Late Avar period represented each craniological component that could be found in the earlier periods. While the character of the IX

th century population could be interpreted by the survival of the Late Avar population. On the absence of a tendentious overlap in the variations of cranial dimensions, the circumstances of continuous survival could not be verified. Only a small part of the population showed the criteria of survivorship. This may have been confirmed by the atypical forms artificially deformed skulls after the V

th century, which referred to symptoms caused by the wear on the head rather than by deformation. In our opinion, several anatomically different populations may have used the same burial place. Consequently, repeated repopulation was more likely than local surviving. This analysis demonstrates the problem that an anthropologist who is dealing with the history of the populations in the Middle Ages of the Carpathian Basin faces. Ivett Kővári-László Szathmáry 163