A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 24-25. (Békéscsaba, 2003)

Hadak Útján XIII. A népvándorlás kor fiatal kutatóinak konferenciája Gyula, 2002. szeptember 17–19. - Varga Péter–Bernert Zsolt–Fóthi Erzsébet–Gyenis Gyula: Anthropologial Analysis of the Human Skeletal Material Inherited from Vilmos Lipp’s Excavations in the Keszthely Region

Lipp Vilmos vezetésével feltárt, Keszthely környéki temetők elemzése Anthropological Analysis of the Human Skeletal Material Inherited from Vilmos Lipp's Excavations in the Keszthely Region - Péter Varga-Zsolt Bernert-Erzsébet Fóthi-Gyula Gyenis Resume At the end of the last century Lipp, Vilmos uncovered more than 6000 graves that might have belonged to Keszthely Culture, the graves of the cemeteries of Fortress Keszthely-Fenékpuszta and Keszthely-Dobogó among them. Lipp's crew followed the routine practice of their days: the only parts of skeletons taken into storage were well-preserved skulls, all the other bones were reburied without examination. We analysed 102 skulls from these excavations. The findings of the two burial sites were evaluated as a combined entity, as the archeological documentation did not indicate clearly their accurate origin. We inherited only a very limited amount of well-preserved anthropological material of Keszthely Culture, therefore the results of our present analysis could provide a significant contribution to the general anthropological understanding of the populations bearing this culture. The population had a unified anthropological image according to the results of our analysis. The gracile Mediterranean type dominated both men and women, associated with an oval shaped brain-case in view from above. Female skulls were extremely small, some of them fell almost in the category microcephal. Male skulls also presented female characteristics as another typical feature of the population. Nordic and Cromagnoid types were almost completely missing from the population. A few craniae bearing Mongoloid features turned up both with men and women. Opinions disagreed on the origins of this population. Kovrig

37 stated that some surviving romanized indigenous population created the Keszthely Culture in the Avar Period, and this population kept its cultural independence after the Avar conquest too. According to the view of Kiss

38 - based on the jewelry different to early Avar finds - a population fragment of unknown origin and of late antique culture settled in a comparatively small territory of the Avar Empire. The fortress was inhabited partly by some surviving late antique population and partly by immigrated Western Germanic people according to Sági,

39 and the geographical position of the Fenékpuszta fortress made the establishment of vivid trade links with Byzantium and Italy possible for them. Müller

40 concluded that in 568 the Langobard in general - with a considerable portion of the romanized population of Pannónia - moved to Italy, but the late antique population of the Keszthely region stayed put, and the fortress of Fenékpuszta was their center. According to LenKOVRIG 1958. KISS 1992. SÁGI 1961; SÁGI 1970. MÜLLER 1987. 459