Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: Comparative statistical studies on the physical anthropology of the Carpathian basin population between the 6–12th centuries A. D. p. 89–141.

tion is known in this group's distribution area is shown in Figure 81. Northwestern region On the basis of already published data, the majority of the population which lived in this area may be described (according to the series No. 103, 109, XVI) as follows: these individuals are entirely Europoid. The brain case is long, medium wide and of medium height (dolichocran, orthocran, metriocran, eurymetop). The facial skeleton is medium wide and of medium height (mesen)

, the orbita is medium wide and low (mesoconch)

. The nose is wide. The longest and highest brain case and the longest and widest facial skeleton is characteristic of this Árpád Period group in the studied geographical area. Other populations however, obviously inhabited this territory as well during the Árpád Period. These groups possessed different craniological characteristics and were represented by the Besenov and Devin populations respectively. The populations which inhabited the northern hills, Transsylvania and the greater part of the Great Plain east of the Tisza river are largely unknown to date. C) According to the relevant data shown in Table 12, the distances calculated between each of the five regional groups allow the following observations to be made : In general, there were similarities between the populations from the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers, Transdanubia and the Northwestern region respectively. The group from the area between the Kőrös and Maros rivers proved to be most different from all the others. This population displays most similarity only to the contemporary inhabitants of the neighboring area between the Danube and Tisza rivers. This relationship is mutual because the series from the area between the Kőrös and Maros rivers provided the closest analogies for this latter group. At the same time the population from the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers is also closely related to the three other groups although the degree of similarity declines with the increase of geographical distances between the groups under discussion. The best analogy for the Eastern Transdanubian samples is found in the Western Transdanubian population, while the latter proved similarity to the population from the Northwestern region. Considering that the shortest distances i. e. greatest similarities were calculated between the populations of neighboring territories, it may be assumed that an undisturbed and continuous natural "chain" of populations existed in the period under study. This is why it is likely that only a certain stratum of the country's population was affected by the 10th century A. D. resettling policies. These had no influence however, on the major part of the population. VIII. THE PROBLEM OF CONTINUITY In the following section the continuity of the populations into the 6—12th centuries A. D. in the Carpathian Basin 1 will be dealt with. This part of the study is based on the relevant data obtained by the investigations into the relationships between individual series and regional groups. The time interval under discussion was broken down into four periods in the previous part of the analysis. Questions concerning continuity however, are most interesting in terms of the 10—12th centuries A. D. survival of the 6—9th century population in the area under discussion. In addition to this main problem however, the connection between the series representing the 10th century A. D. conquerors and the 10—12th centuries A. D. samples from the Árpád Period will also be touched upon. 1. Conclusions drawn from the study of individual samples A) Undoubtedly, evidence of continuity should much rather be provided by comparing regions than by studying relationships between individual samples. This is because there is not much chance of pinpointing direct ancestors i. e. descendants between one or other of the 45 samples which were treated as representative of the population of this 600 year time interval. Still, some results from analyzing the individual series are of relevance in this part of the study. Among the 23 series from the 6—9th centuries A. D. the following samples had analogies from the Period of the Hungarian Conquest or from the Árpád Period: Homokmégy, Kékesd, Nővé Zámky, Szeged-Makkoserdő, Szekszárd-Palánk, Tiszaderzs, Toponár, Virt, Zelovce and Nitra—Lupka. Similarities observed within the 10-12th century period involved the following samples: Ábrahám (in three of the cases), group C, Cegléd, Felgyő, Rusovce, Székesfehérvár-Szárazrét and Zala vár (in two of the cases), group A, group B, Dolny Jatov, Jászdózsa, Kardoskút, Kérpuszta, Orosháza and Székesfehérvár-Bikasziget (in one of the cases). This list of cases appears to be quite extensive. In fact, it is quite modest as may be seen by the percentages. Similarities could only be found in 4.5 percent of all the possible cases which shows that such similarities are even more infrequent than in the assemblage of Avar Period series. The same observation is confirmed by the fact that the majority of all the similarities discovered, usually proved to be secondary either in the case of both samples involved or at least in terms of one of them. This means that any supposition concerning direct relationship is uncertain. It is hard to tell even in the case of mutual primary relationships whether they are not brought about by membership in the same craniological group (see the interpretation of subcluster 1/a). An additional question is raised by the results which is rather difficult to answer unambigously. Could certain similarities be explained by the continuity of the local populations of the Carpathian Basin or do craniological resemblances originate from a common population which already existed before the conquest i. e. the arrival to this geographical unit? In a sense it seems to be reasonable to reckon with the influence of continuous surviving local peoples when similarities occur within a limited geograph19