Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 77. (Budapest 1985)

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

Interpretation of results In paleosomatological-paleoecological connections for evaluating the living conditions of the skeletal populations, an indirect possibility is given by the parallels between the insular and peninsular groups living in tropical and circumpolar zones. It is worthy of mention that the male values from the Mesolithic remains agree with the standard data recorded by the WHO (Mallaha, Ain-Méterchem, Taforalt, Korsor Nor, Ukraine) (Table 1). As it is known in respect to the first two site the robusticity of the group (Mallaha) as well as individual (Ain-Méterchem) have been recorded (FEREMBACH 1973; VALLOIS-FELICE 1979). The analogy or agreement of the data deserves special attention as the osteological remains originate from populations which had lived in different geographical and climatic zones. Similar agreements can be detected in a number of female groups from the Mesolithic. It may be supposed that in spite of the environmental difference

—as the enumerated Mesolithic finds show

—some of the mentioned populations were relatively well-nourished. This, of course, does not concern any subgroup of the hunter-gatherer communities, but the first farming people, as it has also been referred by ANGEL (1973) in the case of Nea Nikomedeia. As regards nutritional status, significant parallelism can be detected not only in the eastern Mediterranean, but in the north European periglacial zones too. This is illustrated by the body weight data of the Neolithic .finds from Denmark. It is worth mentioning that the body weight data of the male and the female subpopulations from the Ukrainian Neolithic exceed the maximum values of the WHO standardized body weight range (Tables 1 and 2). It deserves further attention that in the overwhelming majority of the cases in the male series as well as the female ones, the data of the Neolithic groups significantly exceed the body weight data of population fragments which had lived during the Mesolithic (Tables 1 and 2). This can be considered as an indication of the fact that the change-over from the huntergatherer habit to the settled farming improved living conditions. From the paleosomatological data of some local populations which had lived in the Central-Danube basin (Neolithic sites at Herpály and Kisköre-Gát) (Tables 1 and 2), it can be concluded that the people were relatively well-nourished. In addition, a number of Italian and Thuringian Neolithic population-fragments were also quite well-fed. Among the skeletal populations from the next chronological period (Aeneolithic), the Harappa population which had lived on the periphery of the east Mediterranean, had smaller body weight than the minimal value of the WHO standard (Tables 1 and 2). The undernutrition of the mentioned population cannot be definitely concluded from this fact. An apparent contradiction reveals the paleosomatological status of the skeletal population from Byblos, in which the mean body weight of the male group was smaller than the minimal value of the WHO standard, whereas that one of the female group exceeded the maximum of the same standard (Tables 1 and 2). Perhaps this situation was caused by the small number of the findings. The paleosomatological relations of the recent osteological and living insular tropical populations deserve further attention. The body weight data of the male Philippine Negritos and Andamanese are the same as the minimal values of the WHO standard range, although the Nicobarese

—being characterized by significantly higher stature data

—are of smaller body weight than the WHO standard lower limit. Regarding the very high case number from the Nicobarese, an inconsiderable degree of undernutrition can be assumed (e.i. protein-calorie malnutrition with associated intestinal helminthoses) (Table 1). Although to a lesser degree, the same situation can be postulated for the female Nicobarese (Table 2). The peninsular group from the northern Pacific, especially according to the body weight data of the female subpopulation, are in agreement with the WHO standard values. On the other hand, the body weight data of the male groups as well as the female ones of the mentioned peninsular populations (Chookotka, Kamtshatka) significantly exceed the body