Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 24. (Budapest, 1962)
The deads of the battle of Mohács
In the course of our work we could not find any other manner of death; to look for other causes must be left for another time when renewed diggings shall offer an oppurtunity for anthropological and patho 1 ogical-anatomi cal investi gâtions . Lajos Bartucz, Professor of Anthropology, member of our team made a cursory anthropological examination of the skeletons; it is his opinion that mostly strongly built men between the age of 20-40 had been buried in these graves, as well as a sprinkling of older ones. The great number of skulls without trunks and torsos without skulls warrants the supposition that these graves are the resting place of the warriors beheaded after the battle. This supposition, however, comes to nought as we know that the "divan" held after the battle took place at a distance about 2 km southward from the graves in question. The mass executions were surely held in the vicinity. The 2000 trunks without skulls and skulls without trunks must have been buried at a fairly great distance from these mass-graves and probably all these remnants are equally mutilated. The explanation is given in the Turkish manner of dealing with the enemy: sharp, curved swords were used for severing the adversary's head. Turkish authorities furnish ample proof for this assertion. Kemalpasazade writes: "In the heat of the fight the cavalry scattered in full careen and chopped off heads with their sharp swords, shedding blood . . . How many stubborn heads were rolling along like balls, how many of their locks came to adorn spearheads . . ." After the battle the Sultan and his emirs inspected the battlefield on horseback; according to Kemalpasazade "so many heads covered the ground that the horses' hooves touched but eyes and eyebrows". Another writer, Dselalzade, writes a joyous poem: "The Christians' heads were cut off. - the skull-bashing mace wielded by many hands broke the enemys skulls, - the sharp sword was working well, blood was flowing freely on the field of Mohács, - heads were rolling about in the fields, - human bodies without heads lay around in dust and blood in a mess". Later the Hungarian guards of the border fortresses adopted this manner of fighting.
