Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 24/3. (1997) (Szombathely, 1997)

Zoffmann Zsuzsanna: A Dunántől őskori népességének embertani vázlata

S AVARIA 24/3 (1998-1999) PARS ARCHAEOLOGICA Nagyrév and the Vatya cultures. The situation is rendered even more difficult by the different taxonomical nomenclature used by the different authors (VIRCHOW, MALÁN, NEMESKÉRI, KISZELY, ZOFFMANN). The each one find from the Starőevo and Linear Pottery from the beginning of the Neolithic, are not sufficient for drawing the taxonomic picture of these populations. The few finds of the Sopot-Bicske culture indicate, at the same time, a large heterogeneity of the population which, not being acquainted with the taxonomical picture of the earlier populations, cannot satisfactorily be interpreted. Within the circle of the Lengyel culture represented with a higher number of items, the same types appear that are known in other parts of the Carpathian Basin. A few curvoccipital brach ycranial (Alpic = a) individuals can also be observed in the series beside the gracile Mediterranean (grm), the Atlanto-Mediterranean (am), the Nordic (n) and the Cro-Magnonid A (crA) types. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the representatives of the Bell-beaker culture also appear in our region. It is the population throughout Europe to which the planoccipital brachycranials, the so-called „Glockenbecher type" can be attached. The well discernible type cannot be identified in the poorly preserved material of the population of the culture represented with a low item number in Hungary. Astonishingly, however, the type can be found among the finds of the chronologically somewhat later Kisapostag culture. This phenomenon, contrary to the archaeological research, which argues that the Bell-beakers disappeared from the region after a short stay, seems to suggest that the population arriving from the west, or its groups got mixed with the autochtonous population and, in a biological sense, survived in Transdanubia. The next period, the taxonomical picture of which can be sketched is already the early Iron Age, the Illyrian population of which, according to KISZELY (1968) is composed of an autochtonous grm (+cr,a) and an immigrant Taurid component. It should be added that the autochtonous population has not been identified taxonomically since 1968. The Celts also show a large taxonomical heterogeneity (grm+a, cr+n, n, crA, grm, d), which may also be a logical consequence of their mixture with the autochtonous population as they passed over various regions. THE RESULTS OF THE PENROSE DISTANCE ANALYSIS One of the possible solutions to evade the difficulties in interpreting the taxonomical data caused by the constant re-appearance of identical types in all the periods, is provided by Penrose's statistical method related to the metric basic data of the whole of a given population or populational group. Although this method, too, can only be applied in the case of larger series, it helps to bridge spatial and chronological gaps, so, through the significant connections between series = populational groups, certain continuity and the appearance of new populational groups may be suggested. From Transdanubia, however, there is not enough material even for such a method. Only the series from the Lengyel culture and the series composed of the scattered Celtic finds can be included into a Penrose analysis. From among the cultures that appear only peripherally in Transdanubia, and the ones that have yielded a very small amount of anthropological material, but that are better represented outside the region, the series of the Starőevo, the Baden and the Tumulus cultures are sufficient for the minimal demands of the analysis. The data derived from them may be relevant, to some extent, to the prehistoric population in Transdanubia. The following data came from the analyses of more than 100 Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age series incorporating Eastern and Central Europe together with the Near East (ZOFFMANN ms). The Starőevo culture, its series mostly composed of finds from the present Yugoslavia, does no show a significant Penrose contact, and, furthermore, there is no significant correspondence to the joint Körös-Cric series added to the analysis (ZOFFMANN ms) The Lengyel culture was present in the analysis with several series and some of the results have already been published (ZOFFMANN 1984, 1985, 1991). The significant CR

2 values of the Penrose analysis have delineated a block of Neolithic cultures in Central Europe the populational groups of which are of local, autochtonous origin which did not even later mix with other populational groups. If there was immigration during the Neolithic, it was not a biological one or it caused a very small modification for the people who lived here. The above mentioned block comprises, beside the Lengyel culture, the population of the Central European Linear Pottery culture and the populational groups of the Tisza culture in the Hungarian Plain and of the Vinca culture in Syrmia. The series representing the Bodrogkeresztúr population in the Copper Age of the Hungarian Plain is also significantly connected with the block. (From the circle of the Tiszapolgár culture the finds are not sufficient for the analysis.) The survival of the block earlier called „Central European group" (ZOFFMANN 1984,1985,1991) after the Neolithic can be observed in the Unetice series introduced in the analysis (ZOFFMANN ms). Accordingly, the 36