Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 76. (Budapest 1984)

Tóth, T.: Some anthropological problems of the Mesolithic Europoids, I.

HENNEBERG (1975) analysed the fertility and natural numerical increase dynamics of prehistoric populations and for that purpose he applied numerical methods to establish their potential gross reproduction rate (R

pot

), optimal ultimate number of children (U

c

) and the number of births per adult couple. In accordance with the decreasing mean life span in the Mesolithicum the average fertility became also reduced (Table 4). Taking into consideration the significant increase in total population from the Final Pleistocene to the Mesolithic (DEEVEY 1960), and the exceedingly increased reproduction rate in the Mediterranean Neolithic (see above), it seems to be proved that in the Mesolithic certain groups succeeded in surviving the disadvantageous ecological effects. The recognition of the new ecological circumastances of the Early Holocene, the necessity to look for new food resources resulted in the domestication of smaller ungulate mammals and in the cultivation of some cereals of the vegetation by the Meso-Protoneolithic populations inhabiting the eastern Mediterranean area. Relying upon the chronological sequence of the Near East and Balkan finds we can also follow the paleobotanical relations. The cereal Triticum dicoccum (SCHRANK) SCHÜBL., had been introduced from the southern parts of Anatolia through the Aegean Archipelago at the end of the seventh millenia B.C. to the Balkan peninsula which was uncovered in Nea Nikomedeia together with einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L. [var. nudum]), pea (Pisum sativum L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris MEDIK. V. microspora [BAUMG.]), all of last-enumerated plant were cultivated in the early farming of the mentioned site (LISITSYNA & FILIPOVITSH 1980). In this period the consumption of vegetable food gradually increased and contributed in ecologically advantageous periods to the increasing population density as well as the swarming of the subtribal groups, which resulted in the metisation of the populations of the microregions, that is in the modification of their craniomorphological complex. Although osteological remains from Mesolithic populations are absent in the Central Danubian Basin, on the basis of the above given subcontinental comparisons as well as on the ecological and paleodemographical aspects their immigration and inhabitance in this region is doubtless. References* ACSÁDI, GY. & NEMESKÉRI, J. (1970): History of Human Life Span and Mortality. —- Budapest, 346 pp. ALEXEYEV, V. P. (1972): Paleodemografia SSSR. — Sov. Arched., 1: 3-21. (in Russian, with French summary). ALEXEYEV, V. P. (1978): Paleoantropológia Zemnovo sara i formirovanie tshelovetsheskih rasz. Paleolit. — Moskva, 284 pp. (in Russian, with English summary). ALEXEYEV, V. P. (1979) : Gorizontalniy profil i razvitie nosovoi oblasti u mezolititsheskogo i ranneneolititsheskogo naselenia basseina Dunaia (mogilniki Vlasac i Lepenski Vir.). — Sov. Etnogr., 2: 40-51. (in Russian, with English summary). ALEXEYEV, V. P. (1981): Horizontal profile and the development of nasal region by Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Population of Danube Valley (Burial Grounds in Vlasac and Lepenski Vir). — Glasnik antropol.drustva Jugosl.sv. 18, Beograd: 19-31. ALEXEYEV, V. P. (1983): Mezolititsheskiy tsherep iz peshthsherue El Wad. — Quest. Anthrop., 71: 64-71. (in Russian, with English summary). ALEXEYEV, V. P. & DEBETS, G. F. (1964): Kraniometria. — Inst. Etn. AN SSSR, Moskva: 128 pp. (in Russian). ANDRIANOV, B. V. (1974) : Geografitsheskaia sreda i probléma zarozhdenia zemledelia. Pervobuetnuey tshelovek, ego materialnaia kultúra i prirodnaia sreda v Pleistotsene i Golotsene. — Moskva: 217-225. (in Russian). ANGEL, J. L. (1973): Early Neolithic People of Nea Nikomedeia. — Die Anfänge des Neolithikums vom Orient bis Nordeuropa, Fundamenta, Köln

—Wien, 8/a: 103-112. (with German summary). ASMUS, G. (1973): Mesolithische Menschenfunde aus Mittel-, Nord- und Osteuropa. — Die Anfänge