Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 33. 2003 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2004)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Köhler, Kitti: Anthropological finds of the Lengyel culture from Csabdi-Télizöldes. XXXIII. p. 7–24.

grows with age as proven by statistical methods, in our material most of them appear in the cases of mature individuals {Table /I), furthermore exclusively on women. The atrophy of jaws can form due to ageing, but also as a consequence of caries or other illnesses of the dental socket. In our material, this was observed in the case of one woman of mature age. As a result of the illnesses of the teeth and the dental socket or of inflammations, cysts or abscesses might form on the jaws. The two disorders are evaluated jointly, since they are not easy to tell apart on archaic skeletal remains. They were observed in three cases on two individuals at Csabdi-Télizöldes. Both individuals had caries as well, which supports the view that these appear as one of the consequences of dental caries. Dental congestion and rotation due to irregularity of dentition was observed in one case. 8. Pathological deformities It has to be noted in connection with the pathological deformities observed during the macroscopic investigation of the remains that due to the bad state of preservation of the bones, we could only register the signs of what illnesses occurred. As a consequence of this and the low number of cases, it was not possible to draw any conclusions concerning the frequency, sex and age distribution of the deformities. The deviation of the nasal septum was observed on the skull of a woman of mature age in grave 12. It was most possibly iron deficiency, respectively anaemia due to malnutrition, that caused the osteological deformity located on the upper part of the orbit, called cribra orbitalia (Marcsik 1975), detected on the man of mature age in grave 18. The most frequent deformities were those of the spine. Some authors classify the break in the continuity of the arch of the vertebrae (spondylolysis) as developmental disorder; others emphasize the role of macrotraumas or recurring microtraumas in their formation. Its bilateral version was observed on the adult man of grave 24 in our material. Among the degenerative deformities of the spine, spondylosis was the most frequent one. The serrated osseous outgrowth on the edges of vertebral bodies caused by the pathological deformity of the vertebral discs may form primarily in old age, as a consequence of increased strain, recurring microtraumas, or maybe monotonous, static work (Regöly-Mérei 1962; Gáspárdy 1961). This deformity, frequent in prehistory in general and in the Neolithic as well, was identified only once in CsabdiTélizöldes, on one of the lumbar vertebrae of the woman from grave 12. Spondylarthritis was observed on the cervical vertebrae of the mature man from grave 25.1, where, as a result of inflammation, the right superior articular facet was flattened and widened. We detected a tuberous impingement on the distal surface of the corpus of a thoracic vertebra of the women from grave 9, which matched the picture of the Schmorl's nodule. The aetiology of this deformity is still debated; it might be the result of congenital disorder, a regressive process or a trauma (Regöly-Mérei 1962). In the distal third of the right tibia of the adult man from grave 1, bone thickening and curvature towards the medial could be observed. This curve was seen on the fragmentary fibula as well. An exact diagnosis would require X-ray, at the moment we can only assume the presence of a fracture that had healed with minimal dislocation. The physical anthropological characterization of the population of the Lengyel culture We have a fairly large amount of information on the population of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture in Transdanubia at our disposal, since most of its cemeteries and graves have already been investigated by physical anthropologists. These are shown in Map 1. Most of the cemeteries, among them the largest ones, are known from south-eastern Transdanubia (e.g. Mórágy, Zengővárkony), while from western Transdanubia - or from Lower Austria - mainly single, in some cases special ritual or sacrificial burials have been found. In physical anthropology, for a long time the main aim has been to establish the origin and genetic relationships of certain populations and ethnic groups with the help of taxonomical analysis. According to such examinations, the dominant elements of the population of the Lengyel culture are the Atlanto-Mediterranean types, while the presence of Gracile Mediterranean and Cromagnoid, furthermore, though less significantly, that of certain brachycranic (Alpine) types has been observed as well (Zoffmann 1968; Zoffmann 1969-1970; Kiszely 1973; Szathmáry 1981). This typological diversity can be detected in the population buried at Csabdi-Télizöldes as well, despite the low number of well-preserved skulls, here, however, gracile and robust Mediterranean types are the most dominant. The classification of the finds into taxons, however, is complicated by a number of difficulties. First, a certain amount of typological mixing can be observed already from the earliest periods of prehistory, thus certain skeletons cannot be identified unambiguously with one of the taxons. Furthermore, this method is partly based on the strongly subjective classification of morphological traits, although absolute and relative measures must be 10