Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 8.-9. 1967-1968 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1968)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: Reconstruction on the tenth Century Population of Sárbogárd on the Basis of Archaeoloogical and Anthropological Data. – A sárbogárdi X. századi közösség rekonstrukciója régészeti és embertani adatok alapján. VIII–IX, 1967–68. p. 93–147. t. XXVI–XLV.

numerous narrow, parallel loess ridges running in a N—NW—

S—SE direction. The width of the ridge is approximately 20—25 m; its height: 2 meters and its length : с 200 meters. The ridge, therefore, predetermined the expansion or shape of the cemetery. The maximum width of the cemetery is 20 m., its length 70 m. The longitudinal axis of the cemetery is the most prominent and the hill slightly slopes on both sides of it. The cemetery did not extend to the hillside. The natural geography of this part of the Mezőföld will be briefly surveyed here on the basis of the works of Kogutowicz

6 and Ádám — Marosi — Szilárd.

7 The Mezőföld region is typical of the Great Hungarian Plains. It is mainly noted for having the least rainfall and rivers in all Transdanubia. But both banks of the Sárvíz, thus the vicinity of Sárbogárd, were before the regulation of waterways and to an extent even today still are swampy moorlands from which only the mentioned dunes constitute the dry areas. Therefore in this area only the narrow loess ridges were suitable for human settlements. The soil analyses show that the major part of the Mezőföld plain has never been covered by forests. The moderately windy area poor in precipitation, scorched by the sun, was not favorable for agriculture, but the marshy region on both banks of the Sárvíz provided good pastures for animal breeding. The significance of the area was increased by the circumstance that an important road passed through it. Through this area ran one of the military roads built by the Romans and used even in the middle ages: it ran nearby Sárbogárd, coming from Szekszárd it jointed at Székesfehérvár the main east-west highway which ran north of the Balaton (Figure 1). 3. Characteristics of the Cemetery's Ground-Plan Upon examining a map of the cemetery certain differences in the location of the graves and in their distances from one another were observed. It seems that the northern and southern portions of the cemetery as well as the central section are different. The orientation of the dead and the distance of the individual graves from each other are quite varied in the northern wing of the cemetery. Some lie very close while there is a greater space observable between others. This is quite evident in the vicinity of male grave 33. The orientation of the dead in the southern wing of the cemetery is more uniform and the graves are more evenly spaced. The graves are very crowded in the central section of the cemetery where in several cases graves are located on top of older graves. The superposition of graves is suprising in such a small cemetery used only for three generations, for there was room towards the northwest « K. KOGUTOWICZ: Dunántúl és Kis-Alföld írásban és képben (Transdanubia and the Kis-Alföld in Writing and Pictures) (Szeged 1930) 259282 'L. ÁDÁM-S. MAROSI-J. SZILÁRD: A Mezőföld természeti földrajza (Physical Geography of the Mezőföld) (Bp. 1959). Fig. 1. Sketch of Transdanubia with the site of Sárbogárd or southeast on the ridge of the hill for the expansion of the burial grounds. The circumstance might have been caused by the circumstance that the cemetery was originally fenced and the thus limited area proved to be small after a while. Since such burials occurred only in the central portion of the cemetery it is possible that the location of the graves within the cemetery was restricted by laws (Figure 2). 4. Distribution of the Dead in the Cemetery According to Age and Sex Table 1 presents the distribution of the 100 unearthed individuals according to age and sex. The demographic aspects of the distribution will be treated later. The buried females are not evenly distributed in the cemetery. There are more in the northern wing (even including the sporadic graves) while there are considerably less females in the southern. The distribution of the buried'males in the cemetery is proportional. Their location shows peculiarities only around grave 33. Near this grave were only women and children ; graves of men are located somewhat farther away and form a ring around the male grave 33. Certain laws regulating the order of burial could be concluded from these. The distribution of children is proportional in the northern and southern wings of the cemetery and a somewhat greater number of children is found buried in the center. 94