A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1981 (Debrecen, 1983)

Természettudomány - Szathmáry László: The Skeletal History of the Neolithic in the Carpathian Basin

the later groups were most often unearthed mixed with AVK type archaeological material. The skeletal finds of Early Neolithic Transdanubian (Middle European) Linear Pottery (DVK) population are known from two findspots. Ön the skeletons and particularly on the male ones Nitra-H. Krskany the modification of the Combe Capelle type can be recognized. The males are robust and rather archaic. The females are relatively gracile. Taxonomically they are Proto-Mediterranean and gracile-Mediterranean variants with some Cro-Magnon-like characteristics. The skulls are usually long and narrow or medium narrow. The foreheads are usually narrow a bit broader with the females. The height of the skulls vary a bit higher with the males. The faces are low or medium-high. As for the indices they are usually acrocranial, eurymetopian and meso-hypsikonch. Besides, the males are hyperdolicho-dolichocranial and hypsicranial. While the females are dolicho-mesocranial, hypsi-orthocranial and chamaerrhin (Jelinek, 1973, Pavúk, 1966). The Pöttsching skeleton (Jungwirth, 1965) does not differ from these considerably however nordic its character may seem, as opposed the Mediterranean types of Nitra. 3. Middle Neolithic It seems expedient to draw the outlines of the skeletal history of the Middle Neolithic in the eastern region of the Carpathian Basin by the skeletal finds of the Alföld Linear Pottery culture (AVK) having developped at the end of the Early Neolithic and by the skeletons of the late (i. e. Middle Neolithic) groups of the Linear Pottery: Tiszadob group, Bükk group and Esztár group (Kalicz. Makkay, 1977, Korek, 1971, Korek, Patay, 1958, Lichardus, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1972). First of all two phenomena strike the eye. One is the significant morphological differences between the skeletons within the Linear Pottery. The other is the appearing of several archaic Linear Pottery finds, which have not had their parallels in the Körös-Starcevo-Cris culture yet. For the sake of an easier survey the Linear Pottery skeletons also involving the earlier AVK finds, are arranged in three groups. It is just possible that two of the three groups also differ from one another in origin. The first group is composed of the archaic finds from Vadna (Tiszadob group), Zaránk (AVK + Bükk group), Onga-Signalbox (Tiszadob and Bükk group) and Zsáka-Vizesi farm (Esztár group). The Vadna man (Szathmáry, 1981) is the most archaic find of Carpathian Basin Neolithic. It may have been the survivor of the archaic Cro-Magnon-like local formation of the Northern Balkan (Derdap). According to Nemeskéri and Szathmáry's classification (1978e) it is a variant of Vlasac „A2" (!) character. It is very likely that a Cro-Magnon-like component widespread in the Mediterranean played part in the developing of the Vadna man at the end of the Gravette and the begining of the Mesolithic. The late and peripheric appearance of this archaic formation can be considered a remarkable piece of information concerning the origin of the Linear Pottery population. The Zaránk skeleton (Szathmáry, 1979a), may be the remainder of an evolved and relatively isolated descendant of an autochthonous population fraction which was characteristic of the Carpathian Basin even in the Upper Palaeolithic (being of ProtcbMediterranean-Combe Capelle-Binshof character). This find seems quite unfamiliar and cannot be by any means integrated with the Endmesolithic and Preneolitichis skeletons of the Northern Balkan. There are significant morphological differences between the two finds mentioned above. The skulls of the formers are characterised by large absolute measurements (e. g. very long and high). The latters, on the other hand, are characterised by mediocre measurements, though the brain-cases are usually narrow and the nasal cavities are broad. The Onga skeletons (Szathmáry, 1981) are basically of Cro-Magnon character bearing at the same time the marks of modifications similar to the Vlasac ,,AB" finds. They kept this relatively archaic 54