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.

Fig. 2. The ground plan of the cemetery of Sárbogárd II. ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSES 7. Burial Rites Before presenting my analysis I would like to make a few comments. In order to somewhat more realistically judge the position of the 10th century population of Sárbogárd we have to know about the general sociographic picture of the population of the Central Danube Basin in the 10th century following the Magyar conquest, and in the 11th century, the first century of Christianity,the period of the rise of the royal house. For this reason the following examination will focus on 9 cemeteries in addition to that of Sárbogárd. The cemeteries were selected in order to express the temporal and social differences of this era.

8 I chose the tenth century cemeteries of Kenézlő and Bashalom as being typical of the ruling strata of the 8 The data of the 9 examined cemeteries are the following: Kenézlő Fazekaszúg (Szabolcs-Szatmár County). Graves 25, partial excavation. (N. FETTICH: Arch. Ért. 45 [1931] 78-112). Determination of sex was done by L. Barlucz (L. BARTUCZ: Arch. Ért. 45 [1931] 113119) In reference to age I could distinguish only between adults and children. - Bashalom — Fenyvestábla I. (Szabolcs-Szatmár County). Graves 23, partial excavation. (I. DIENES: Acta Arch. Hung. 7 [1956] 245-273). The sex was determined on the basis of the data of archaeological literature ; I could distinguish only between adults and children _ Szentes -Szentlászló (hence forth: Szentlászló. Csongrád County). Property of I. Tárkány-Szűcs. Graves 112, 90% of cemetery excavated (M. SZÉLL: FA 3/4 [1941] 231-265). The sex was determined on the basis of data in archaeological literature; I could distinguish only between adult and children. -HódmezővásárhelySzakáihát (henceforth: Szakáihát. Csongrád County). Graves 40, partial excavation (A. BÁLINT: Dolg. 12 [1936] 205-221). The sex was determined on the basis of data in archaeological literature; I could distinguish only between adults and children. - SzékesfehérvarBika s z i g e t (henceforth: Bikasziget. Fejér County). Graves 71, partial excavation (A. MAROSI: Arch. Ért. 40 [1923-26] 245-257). Sex and age was determined by J. Nemeskéri (Gy. ACSADI - J. NEMESKERI : AHN 51 [1959] 493-564). - Hódmezővásárhely — К о p á n с s (henceforth: Kopáncs. Csongrád County). Graves 50, partial excavation (M. PÁRDUCZ: Dolg. 19 [1943] 183 -192). Sex was distinguished according to archaeological literature, with my own corrections in places; I could distinguish only between adults and children. — Békés — Povád (henceforth: Povád. Békés County), Graves 147, partial excavation (O. TROGMAYER: MFMÉ [1960-62] 9-38). I distinguished the sexes on the basis of archaeological literature; I could distinguish only between adults and children. -Kérpuszta (Somogy County). Graves 388, completely excavated (P. LIPTÁK-J. NEMESKÉRI-B. SZŐKE: Acta Arch. Hung. 3 [1953] 205-279). Determinations of sex and age were made by J. Nemeskéri and L. Harsányi (Gy. ACSADI-J. NEMESKÉRI-L. HARSÁNYI: Acta Arch. Hung. 11 [1959] 419-455). Zalavár - Chapel (henceforth: Zalavár. Veszprém County). Graves 165, partial excavated (Á. SÓS: AH 41 [1963]. Age and sex were determined by J. Nemeskéri (ibid). conquering Magyars. The cemeteries of Szentes—Szentlászló, Hódmezővásárhely—Szakáihát, Székesfehérvár— Bikasziget, Hódmezővásárhely—Kopáncs from the 10th century belong to the common people. It is still difficult to determine the exact chronological relation of the latter 10th century cemeteries, but under all circumstances it is likely that part of them were still in use at the beginning of the 11th century. Finally we should include the 11th century cemeteries of the common people at Békés— Povád, Kérpuszta and Zalavár—Chapel. These are likely to have originated from the end of the 10th century, but they were probably used until the end of the 11th and even into the beginning of the 12th centuries. The listing of the compared cemeteries, however, still expresses an approximate chronological order which I shall follow throughout the analysis. In addition to the above theoretical points influencing the selection of the cemeteries, there would be a practical need for such cemeteries which are fully excavated and whose elementary anthropological analyses (determinations of age and sex) has already been done. But since only very few cemeteries were studied according to such specifications allowances have to be made for several cemeteries. Consequently the data gained from the 9 series are not of equivalent value. From our viewpoint the most valuable are those of Kérpuszta and Zalavár—Chapel which comprise a relatively large series and whose elementary anthropological study has already been made. Thus the conclusions drawn from them are the most dependable. A. Orientation of the Dead As it is known the dead of the 10th—11th century populations were buried — in accordance with their religious beliefs — facing the rising sun. But the location of the morning sun may differ by as much as 70° depending on the season. The orientation of the dead, therefore,, shows a normal distribution, approximately around 70°.. 95