A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 16. (Veszprém, 1982)

Éry Kinga: Újabb összehasonlító statisztikai vizsgálatok a Kárpát-medence 6–12. századi népességeinek embertanához

KINGA ÉRY COMPARATIVE STATISTICAL STUDIES ON THE PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN POPULATION BETWEEN THE 6—12th CENTURIES A. D. The aim of the present study was to try to analyze data on the origin, regionality and continuity of populations living in the Carpathian Basin between the 6— 12th centuries A. D. The investigations focused on male craniometric data. The method applied was that of Penrose's distance calculation based on ten skull measurements and was completed by various cluster analyses. The investigation, with a few exceptions, dealt only with series in which the number of cases was not less than ten per measurement. For the purpose of wider comparison 74 series were included mostly from the steppe belt of the Soviet Union and from a broader time span in addition to 46 series from the Carpathian Basin itself. The major results of the investigations may be summarized as follows: 1. The origin of the Avar Period populations could only in part be clarified and even this information is rather sketchy. Mongoloid populations, wich make up only a portion of the peoples from this period came from the greatest distance, from Central Asia. One may only hypothesize that another, relatively large group, was formed somewhere in the territory of Middle Asia. This population is typically characterized by a low brain case. At the same time, it is quite likely that a considerable portion of the Avar Period population originated from the territory of Eastern Europe. Some of these groups formed in the southern steppe areas while others originated in the decidious forest belt north of this region. Avar Period populations with different origins seem to have occupied different parts of the Carpathian Basin. Groups coming from the wide and open ranges settled down in the plains while the people from the decidious forest belt seem to have preferred an environment of rolling hills. Four different regional units may be recognized up to this point: between the Danube and Tisza rivers, Eastern Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia, and the Northwestern region. There are only sporadic data from the population east of the Tisza river. There is great dissimilarity between these latter. Data concerning the ethnic composition of the Avar Period population are scarce and uncertain. Probable "Sarmatian", Northern Pontic Late "Scythian", eastern "Finnic", eastern "Slavic" and Late Roman Period local populations may be postulated in some cases. It seems certain that a large portion of the Avar Period population survived in Transdanubia and the Northwestern region or even east of the Tisza river. On the other hand, population continuity was disrupted in the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers. 2. The anthropological aspect of the historical events which took place during the 9th century A.D. is for the most part unknown. It seems likely however, that the Avar Period population in the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers was replaced by a Northern Pontic group. These peoples had Late "Scythian" characteristics and come from the eastern bank of the Tisza river probably having lived there continuously during the Avar Period or even earlier. A number of signs also suggest that a very small number of "Germanic" populations infiltrated the Western Transdanubian region from a western direction. In addition, it is likely that a Moravian

—Slav population moved into the Northwestern region from the direction of Mikulcice. 3. The craniological character of the late 9th century A.D. conquering groups had already been formed by about the 4th

—2nd centuries B.C. This population can be divided into two major sections. The majority of individuals originated in part from the European and in part from the Middle Asian steppe belt east of the Dieper river. The ancestors of the conquering groups probably occupied this area at the height of the Iron Age. The previous Ugric Period habitation area of this group seems to have been on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains or even farther to the east. Upon arrival in the Carpathian Basin they occupied the Great Plain. These people may be considered as belonging ethnically to the groups forming the seven Hungarian conquering tribes. The other, less numerous portion of the conquering groups, may have consisted of a different, predominantly "non-Hungarian" population. This group formed in the East European steppe belt, probably in the area north of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It may have joined the people of the seven Hungarian tribes somewhere in the Dieper region and settled mainly in Transdanubia and the northern hilly region following the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. This population was probably chiefly made up of the so-called Kabars, although it may also have included eastern "Slavs" and fragments of other ethnic groups as well. This combined population was probably the first to mix with the local people, while the seven tribes maintained their genetic isolation for a somewhat longer time. 4. By the Early Árpád Period a smaller part of the population was made up of the descendants of the conquerors, while the majority represented a mixture with the earlier inhabitants. One can also detect regional characteristics in this period, between the Körös and Maros rivers, the Danube, and Tisza rivers, Eastern Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia, and in the Northwestern region. The fact that populations in the Early Árpád Period mostly continued living in the same geographical environment and maintained the chief craniological characteristics of their local ancestors who survived the Hungarian conquest may be explained in two ways. It was either the small scale of the late loth century A.D. resettling measures wich preserved these features or else the policy did not focus on these people with local ancestry. By considering some anthropological data which indicate the within country dispersion of the Early Árpád Period population of steppe origin, it may be suggested that resettling first effected the descendants of the conquering seven Hungarian tribes. This movement was related to the strengthening of centralized rule. On the one hand, this may have served to neutralize the tribesmens' power; on the other hand, it could have contributed to the extension of Hungarian rule over the aboriginal people. 85