Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 64. (Budapest 1972)

Wenger, S.: Data to the anthropology of the Avar Period population in Northern Plains, Hungary

According, the cranial shape of the partial population at Tisza vasvár is brachycranial, hypsicranial, metriocranial, metriometopic, mesoprosopic —mesen, mesoconch, and chamerrhinous. A part of the brain cases are characterized by curvooccipitalia, another part by planoccipitalia. The stature is average. There is a very slight differentiation observable between the sexes, the mutual correspondance being supported by the extensive agreement of the already discussed morphometric data of the brain case and the facial skeleton, that is, of the mean values of the absolute measurements and indices as well as of the group frequencies of the main characteristics. A sexual differentiation appears mainly in the morphoscopic features, as for instance in the state of expressedness of the glabella, the processus mastoideus and the protuberantia occipitalis externa, allowing to trace rather well the phenomenon of massivity — gracility. Taxonomic analysis Since any given human community is not only polymorphous but also polytypical, a taxonomic analysis should, beyond the traditional mathematical statistical elaboration, also be made for the sake of a better comparison. On the basis of the comparative metric and morphological analysis of the character complexes, the recognizable portion of the Avar Period population at Tisza vasvár is remarkable first of all by its heterogeneous state, that is, it not being uniform, within the Europoid great race. The cemetery is composed partially from brachycranial, partly from Cromagnoid and Nordoid-Mediterranean, elements. Comparative analysis The next question is what place does the Avar Period cemetery at Tisza vasvár, excavated in the northern part of our Great Plains, occupy in the set of our home cemeteries and what is its relationship to them. For the basis of a comparative analysis, the following anthropological materials of the cemeteries originating from the time of the great migrations, excavated and published from the region between the Danube and the Tisza and beyond the Tisza in Hungary, can be taken into account: Szentes-Kaján (WENGER, 1955), Tiszaderzs (LEBZELTER, 1957), Áporkaiürbőpuszta (LLPTÁK, 1951), JánoshidaBoldogháza (WENGER, 1953), Keceli. (LIPTÁK, 1954), Üllői.-Üllő II. (LIPTÁK, 1955), Alattyán-Tulát (WENGER, 1952, 1957), Homokmégy-Halom (LIPTÁK, 1957), Adorján (BARTUCZ — FARKAS, 1957), Tiszavárkony (LIPTÁK, 1957), Váchartyán* (BÁTAI, 1952). Bearing in mind that the primary taxonomic features concentrate themselves on the facial skeleton, I applied the correlational topography of the main morphological characters, e.g., the cranial breadth — bizygomatic breadth, upper face height — bizygomatic breadth, upper face height — orbital index, nasal index —orbital index, for both the male (Fig. 1-4) and the female (Fig. 5-8) series in the course of the comparative analysis. The male series of the Tiszavasvár finds deviates strikingly, according to the correlation of the cranial breadth and the bizygomatic breadth, from those origi* Some morphometric data and the corresponding indices corrected by the present author.