Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 55. (Budapest 1963)
Tóth, T.: Some problems in the anthropology of Conquering Hungarians
ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONAL IS HUNGARICI Tomus 55. PARS ANTHROPOLOGICA 1963. Some Problems in the Anthropology of Conquering Hungarians By T. TÓTH , Budapest In the last decade, an increasing amount of attention was paid to the study of the anthropological finds of the conquering Magyars ( LIPTÁK , 1951, 1953, 1954, 1957a, b; MALÁX , 1956a, b; NEMESKÉRI , 1954, 1955, 1958, 1959). It is to be noted that the significance of these studies can best be assessed from the point of view of the ethnical composition of the Hungarians in the Conquest era ( TÓTH, 1958). At the same time, one cannot forego the fact that the amount of the anthropological finds of the conquering Magyars is considerably smaller than that of the Avar Period ( NEMESKÉRI , 1961). The anthropological finds of the Hungarians of the Conquest peroid was analyzed up to now mainly according to the MARTIN program. The papers cited above differ from each other merely as regards the numbers of the items in the MARTIN program. The conclusions of the majority of the several authors, reflected in the inferences drawn in the respective papers, essentially agree as concerns the type-elements of the secondary taxonomic level. On the basis of recent results, however, it can be established that an analysis in accordance with the classic program does not always promote a relatively truer elucidation of the type-composition of the given population (ALEXEJEV, 1961; DEBETZ, 1961; LEVIN, 1958; TÓTH , 1958, 1961, 1962a, b, c). Since the conquering Hungarians had been the last ethnic wave of the great migration period, they lived in symbiosis with autochthonous ethnic groups partly in the area between the Ural and the Carpathians, partly in the Danubian I3asin-, and this incurred the assimilation of different type-elements. Hence, in an analysis of the anthropological material of the conquering Hungarians, the delimitation and distinction of the secondary (Nordic or Alpine) type-elements cannot be the main project of the respective study, but the delimination within the population of the components of the Eurasian great-races ( TÓTH , 1958). And this, on the other hand, can be possible primarily by the examination of the taxonomically important morphometrical marks of the facial skeleton. The early application of the above concept happened in the assessment of the Ilona Street (Üllő), Eger, and Rád findings from the Conquest period, with the resulting significant correction also in a historical connection, when we attempted to distinguish the early phases of the anthropological formation of the conquering Hungarians. However, the meagre number of the finds had in itself already indicated the necessity of further investigations. The Tiszanána finds, exposed recently and examined by NEMESKÉRI (1962) in conformity with the classic program, demand special attention also from the point of view of faceprofile analysis. Also these findings are small in numbers. All in all, six male and four female skulls were suitable for a face-
