Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 88. (Budapest 1996)

Fóthi, E. ; Fóthi, Á.: Palaeodemographic estimation of the Hungarian Conquest Period cemetery of Tiszafüred

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 88. Budapest, 1996 pp. 223-233. Palaeodemographic estimation of the Hungarian Conquest Period cemetery of Tiszafüred * E. FÓTHI

1 & Á. FÓTHI

2 ' Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1062 Budapest, Bajza utca 39, Hungary 2 Department of General Computer Science, Eötvös Loránd University H-1088 Budapest, Múzeum krt. 6-8, Hungary FÓTHI, E. & FÓTHI, Á. (1996): Palaeodemographic estimation of the Hungarian Conquest Period cemetery of Tiszafüred. - Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 88: 223-233. Abstract - The Conquest Period cemetery of Tiszafüred-Nagykenderföldek is located in Northern Hungary in the upper Tisza region. The remains of 113 individuals were found in graves forming lines. Detailed demographic analysis was carried out. Age at the time of death was divided into fiveyear intervals. Mortality curve, survivorship curve, life expectancy, population size and population age structure are discussed. The ratio of children and adults turned out to be very close to that expected (0.33). Life expectancy at birth was 32.15 years. Sex ratio is almost balanced and it is not indicating any irregular occurrence. The population's mortality curve indicated that most people died in the 0-4 and 5-9 years intervals. There is a mortality peak in the 30-39 years interval and there is another bigger one between 60-64. Women's mortality indices were significantly worse in the period of fertility but in older ages they had the same values as men had. With 4 figures and 4 tables. INTRODUCTION The group of peoples called Uralian emerged from the mist of time on the Eastern side of the Ural mountains sometime between 4000-3500 B.C. The ancestors of the Hungarians were some of them. That region at the foot of the Urals was the ancient homeland of Finno-Ugrian peoples (Fig. 1). Their unity resolved at about 2000 B.C. The Finnish group took a northern route up by the river Volga and some of them even reached the Baltic. They were the ancestors of Volga-Baltic Finnish. The Ugor group also broke up between 1000-500 B.C. That was the starting point of a separate life for the ancient Hungarian people. They crossed the Ural mountain range and they established their new home in Magna Hungária - that is the territories between the rivers Volga and Kama. The Great Migration of the Steppe initiated by the Huns did not avoid the territories of the Hungarians. First they moved to the Don and Donyec river regions on the borders of the powerful Khazar empire. This was the region preserved as Levédia in tradition. In 889 the repeated attacks of a nomad Turkish people called Pecheneg forced the Hungarians to take refugee between the rivers Dnepr and Dnestr to the west of Levédia in the This study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA 3161 & 3162).