A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1989-1990 (Debrecen, 1992)

Természettudomány - Szathmáry László: Multivariate Analysis of Middle Age Cranial Finds from Debrecen

László Szathmáry MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF MEDIEVAL CRANIAL FINDS FROM DEBRECEN The study deals with the medieval population of Debrecen town, a regional center in the northeastern part of the Hungarian Great Plain, through the analysis of skulls dug up within the borderies of the town. The material of the examinations can be divided into two groups chronologically

: an early group and a later one. Early finds (Table l)canbedatedtothe Arpadian Age partly, that is, to the 12th to 14th centuries. Skulls of the late group (Table 2) surely belong to the period following the Arpadian Age, that is, to the 14th to 16th centuries. The interval between the two groups coincides with the end of the period of Hungarian rulers of the Arpad dynasty (1301) on one hand and with the beginning of town development of Debrecen (1361) on the other hand. Altogether 11 skull-measurements and 7 skull-ratios were analysed. Missing data were reconstructed by Dear's principal component method in both sexes, separately. The main point of the examinations was the principal component analysis (SPSS PC + ). Individuals were clustered by the "Average Linkage (Within group)" method by the Euclidean distance on the basis of the extracted factors' scores. The same parameters of the two chronological groups were also compared by F-test and t-test. According to the results presented the specimens of the early sample do not show close connections either within the group or with the individuals of the later sample. Whereas the individuals of the late group (through combinations of different dimensions from the early ones) represent much closer relatedness. Thus: 1 The 12th-14th century sample is rather heterogeneous. 2 The more unified anthropological profile after the 14th century is not based on the preliminaries. 3 The 14th- 15th century growth in the population of Debrecen may be in connection with the desolation of the villages in its neighbourhood. 4 It is very probable that immigrants assimilated the character of the basic population to their own genetic pattern. The characteristics of this process are similar to what we call the „suction effect" of cities nowadays. 116