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

Éry, K.: An anthropological study of the Late Avar Period population of Ártánd

680 — 950 A.D. The material findings of the exposed part of the cemetery is, however, so homogeneous in its majority that the above period-limits can safely be restricted and, primarily on the basis of the ceramics, the investigated portion of the cemetery dated mainly to the ninth centurv. * Owing to unfavourable soil conditions, the anthropological material of the exposed graves is very badly preserved. The quantitative value, despite the great number of graves, of the osteological material of adult individuals—the basis of our studies—is merely 0.34, and its qualitative value no more than 0.14. This fact will, over the partiality of the cemetery, diminish also the validity of conclusions to be drawn from its study. In the exposed section, 95 males, 96 females, and 67 children had been found (together with the 3 partial findings). Their distribution as to age is shown in Table 1. Table 1. : Distribution of the Population of Artand According to Age and Sex Age groups Number of Cases Infans I. (0-7) 42 Infans II. (8-14) 25 Males Females Juvenis (15-22) 9 12 Adultus (23-39) 21 27 Maturus (40-59) 47 33 Senilis (60-x) 10 15 23 - x 8 9 Total 95 96 Concerning age distribution, it is at once apparent that the number of children as related to those of adults is very low. The percentage ratio is 26:74, much too favourable, and thus immediately unreal, especially if compared with the infant morality values of the Árpádian Age (ACSÁDI, 1965). Unfortunately, we know next to nothing, owing to the lack of respective elaborations, about the mortality conditions of the Avar Period populations. However, one might attempt the elucidation of the children—adult rate even in want of demographic treatises on the basis of the very areheological publications. It will therefore not be entirely devoid of interest to examine, in the sense outlined above, some AA^ar Period cemeteries of the Central Danubian Basin, and to compare the values received with the children—adult rate of the Árpádian Age cemeteries (Table 2). As is to be seen from the numerical values, the rate of children and adults in Ártánd is not a unique occurrence; the situation is similar in most Avar Period cemeteries. It seems to be the general rule that, in Avar Period cemeteries, the number of children graves is below 30 per cent of the total, whereas above 30 per cent in the Árpádian Age. Exceptions are Keszthely—Fenékpuszta and Sopronkőhida, as both show already Árpádian Age rates, but these two cemeteries from the ninth century differ also by their object material and burial ritual from the average Avar Period cemeteries. The considerably lower value against the expectable 40—45 per cent mortality rate of the children in Avar Period cemeteries may be due to three causes : 1. A number of the child graves had been destroyed owing to agriculture and soil erosion;