A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1991 (Debrecen, 1993)

Természettudomány - Szathmáry László: Iron Gate–Carpathian Basin: Connections between the Early Holocene Populations

Szathmáry, László Iron Gate - Carpathian Basin: Connections between the Early Holocene Populations Introduction The Iron Gate region belongs to those exceptional territories of Europe where skeleton remains from both the Mesolithic (in the early Holocene) and the early Neolithic as well as from the transition period between the two previous eras have been also left over {Srejovic, 1972, Srejovic and Letica, 1978). Considering that in its surrounding areas - involving also the Carpathian Basin - skeletons are known from the early Neolithic only of the above mentioned archaeological periods up to now, the comparison of these skeleton remains to those of the Iron Gate region deserves particular attention. Likewise in the Balkan territories south of the Iron Gate only early Neolithic finds have been dug up so far. The skeletons coming from these areas, owing primarily to their early positions in the chronology of neolithization, are worth of being involved in the present investigations. Materials and Methods In the Iron Gate region the earliest skeleton finds of the early Holocene are known from the Mesolithic Vlasac locality. These are followed by the early Neolithic skeleton remains from the Lepenski Vir culture (LVC) of the transition period, then by those from the Proto-Starcevo and Starcevo civilizations. All these constitute the basic material of our examinations, dating from the period between 7000 and 5000 B.C. approximately (Table l.).

1 The comparative material only consisted of early Neolithic cranial finds. The skulls of the Karanovo horizon, of the Starcevo and of the Körös-Cri§ cultures, south and northeast of the Iron Gate region, respectively, represented approximately the overlaping period (5600-4500 B.C.). The crania of the Alföld Linear Pottery (ALP) alongside the river Tisza and of the Middle European Linear Pottery (MELP) developing west and north of the Danube are younger than the previously mentioned (4600-4000 B.C.). Thus altogether 70 male and 70 female individuals were examined. The analysis of the non-metric traits was based on 20 cranial characteristics: ossa suturae coronalis, ossa suturae sagittalis, 1 The skeleton remains of Lepenski Vir culture and those of Starcevo culture were separeted by Prof. Dr. D. Srejovic (Beograd, 1980) for which I would like to express my thanks. 67