Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)

Tóth, T.: On the diagnostic significance of morphological characters I. (A methodological study)

the above series essentially differ in their primary taxonomical characters (Table 1). Going by the values of mesocrany, the average correspondance of the findings of Ellend II and Mosonszentjános is also undeniable, but, with regard to their primary taxonomical characters (nasomalar, zygomaxillary, nasal spine angles, etc.), one can establish their signal dissimilarity (Table 1). On the other hand, the findings, displaying dissimilar cranial indices, of Budapest-People's Stadium and Mosonszentjános, strongly resemble each other with respect to the primary taxonomical features (Table .1). It is further worthy of note that the bracbycrany of the Homokmégyhalom, Kecel, and Szenteskaján findings can also be found in the corresponding mean values of the Kasahstan male series from the Sarmata-Usun Period, whereas no similar agreement in the values of the nasomalar, zygomaxillary and nasal spine angles can be observed (Table 1). Nor can, finally, the craniometric similarity in the neurocranial indices of two Central Asian populations, the Tadzhiks and the Kirghizes be neglected, or their significant deviations either, evident in the primary taxonomical characters of the splanchnocranium (Table 1). In the examples given above, we have used, for the analysis of the problem, mean values which, however, are not concurrent with a negation of the role of individual variability. In our opinion it is not the analysis of the individual deviations within the given series which furthers the elucidation of the chosen problem, but the comparative evaluation of the mean values of osteological groups deriying from diverse geographical zones. In any case, and in cognizance of the examples discussed above, one cannot ascribe primary importance to the neurocranial index in the anthropological study of osteological findings also from the great migrations deriving from the area of the Central Danubian Basin. The taxonomical value oî the bizygomatic breadth In the comparative evaluation of the anthropological series deriving from the great migrations in the Central Danubian Basin, our home literature examines the metric conditions of the bizygomatic breadth as one of the arguments for the ethnic connexions with Central, Northern, and Innermost Asia. It is known that, according to recent data published by DEBETS (ALEXEYEV-DEBETS , 1964), the "high" and "very high" values (categories) of the bizygomatic breadth, based on the investigation of many thousands of skeletons originating from the area of Northern Eurasia, vary between 137—150 mm in the male groups. As is to be seen from our material submitted below (Table 2), a great bizygomatic breadth is characteristical of not only the Neolithic findings of the Baikal area (Vercholensk), but also for the Mesolithic of Morocco (Taforalt), the Bretagne (Téviec), and Ukraine, and for the Neolithic of England (Roundgraves) and, again, Ukraine. At the level of our present knowledge, we cannot speak, with reference to the above examples, of a Mongoloidé influence either in the North African or the European Mesolithic Age, since, despite the high values of the bizygomatic breadth, the primary taxonomic marks of the splanchnocranium are characteristic, in the findings mentioned above, of the Europoide great race. Although numerous morphological characteristics concerning the high values (e.g. nasomalar and zygomaxillary angles etc.) of the splanchnocranium had relatively become constant, since the Neolithic Age, in the area of the Mongoloidé great race, this does not unilaterally refer to the data of the bizygomatic breadth. In the skeletal findings of the Protoeuropoide populations from the Bronze Age of the Altai Range and the Minusinsk Basin in Central Asia, the values of the bizygomatic breadth are also high, varying at an average between 138—142 mm (Table 2, Figs. 1—3). In spite